Upon first coming to Freshman Inquiry Seminar class, Ms. Killebrew handed out a political cartoon about the new secretary of education Betsy DeVos by Glenn McCoy and the painting “The Problem We All Live With” by Norman Rockwell. One was a depiction of the struggle faced by Ruby Bridges because she was the first African American child to go to an all-white elementary school while the other depicted Betsy DeVos’s “struggle” as she was escorted by security so that she could get into a school to do a speech. Through both, the idea of seclusion and silencing of free speech is conveyed, although I feel like comparing a civil rights activist fighting for her constitutional rights and a billionaire trying to make a quick buck off free schooling is tactless, since the struggle of these two women are completely different with different end goals.

 The year is 1960 and the country is facing a dilemma. Although “all men are created equal”, the south still felt that blacks should be treated as anything less than humans since this was what they were accustomed to. Then, came a desegregation wave. No longer were African Americans going to be separated from whites due the melanin in their skin and a girl, named Ruby Bridges spearheaded this movement. She was the first African American girl to go to a previously “White Only” school. Because the idea of a black girl going to an all white school was a threat to people’s way of life, there was backlash against Ruby Bridges. This backlash is depicted in the painting “The Problem We All Live With” by Norman Rockwell. In the painting, a little African American girl is walking up-straight and proud, despite many white men in suits tower over her, escorting her to school. A tomato is splattered next to her head, a discouraging act of hatred, but still, the girl walks ahead of it, almost as to say, “there’s going to be a struggle, but I will keep moving forward, for my ideals”. Fast forward to 2018 and a white woman-a billionaire- faces a situation that some would call “similar” to that of Ruby Bridges. She is being barred from entering a school and doing a speech about her policies as the new secretary of education. Like in the painting of Ruby Bridges there’s white men towering next to Betsy DeVos, a tomato spattered next to her-in both paintings the tomato saying the same “keep out, we don’t want you here”- and the word “conservative” spray painted next to her. The images are meant to represent the struggle for free speech, one being that of an African American girl trying to go to school, while the other of a billionaire trying to speak her mind.

The genre for the painting is historical. It’s meant to show the struggle Ruby Bridges faced, like it was the day Ruby Bridges had to go to school, the hatred she had to deal with, and how she dealt with it. It was meant to be realistic and accurate with very little hyperbole, unlike the political cartoon written by Glenn McCoy. Glenn McCoy’s drawing of Betsy DeVos was meant to be satirical and meant to exaggerate the idea that people would keep others out just because they believed something different than they did. This was especially apparent with the tomato splattered next to DeVoss, since, that did not actually happen in real life. Personally, I like both political cartoons in general, as well as historical paintings. Both political cartoons and historical paintings help give insight on historical events, as well as different viewpoints about those events in history, which help us understand those events more.

The two pieces of media remind me of the painting “The Death of Socrates” by Jacques Lewis David. The painting depicts the moment before Socrates drinks the hemlock concoction as a punishment for challenging Athenian ideals. Socrates had his own beliefs, such as ewhich many didn’t agree with and as a result, he was charged as a criminal and sentenced to death This reminded me of the tomato thrown on both scenes- meant to represent the seclusion of people based either on their ideas or their skin color. Because they were different, they didn’t belong- so they must be eradicated. With Ruby Bridges case, it was because of the white people insulting her skin color and in and trying to stop her from going to school. With Betsy DeVos, it was because of her ideals and background. Secluding people based on who they are and what they believe in has always been a part of history and both the painting and cartoon highlight this.

            As one can tell, I disagree with the idea of seclusion based on what someone thinks and how they look like. Despite me not agreeing with the policies of Betsy DeVos, I still wouldn’t seclude her from my college campus if she ever came just because she was a conservative or because she was rich or because I believed she’s not qualified. However, I also don’t believe she struggled as much as Ruby Bridges did and that their struggles are the same. Yes, they both deal with free speech and they both are victims of seclusion- well one more than another, but Betsy DeVos is no civil rights activist. She isn’t fighting to secure the rights of African Americans or any other people, she is fighting to make education a business. 

Sweet Dreams Aren’t Made of This

Connie, the main character in Joyce Carol Oates’ Where Are You Going, Where have You Been is a teen obsessed with her looks. She’s conscious about how her voice sounds to others, how she should act when she’s with her family and how she should act with anyone outside of her family. One day, her family leaves for a barbeque and leave Connie sleeping outside. Connie then dreams of Arnold Friend and his pal Ellie. In this dream, the Freudian concepts of displacement- the shifting of objects and ideas into other seemingly unrelated objects- and condensation- symbols in dreams that connect or represent two or more ideas or objects- shows that Connie doesn’t want the things her family nags her about become a reality.

Connie is very dismissive of her family, especially her mom. The first introduction we get with Connie, she is looking at herself in a mirror while her mother tells her to stop, which Connie doesn’t pay attention to. The reason her mother tells her this is because Connie has a very vain personality, which she mentions that her mother was like, as an adolescent. As a matter of fact, Connie states that her mother was a “shadowy vision of herself as she was right at that moment: she knew she was pretty and that was everything.” (Oates) and that’s why she nags Connie so much, she doesn’t want Connie to be a shallow person, but to Connie, looks are everything. As a result, she often compares Connie to her sister, which Connie also doesn’t think highly of. Connie thinks that because her sister as “plain and chunky”, but the thing that makes Connie dislike her sister is that she’s always with Connie. Her father is always working, only to come home tired, read a newspaper, eat and then go to bed. Between her father- who’s never there- and her mother- who always nags her and reminds her that her sister is better, it makes sense why Connie would search for validation outside of her family, why she had “two ways of doing things” (Oates). Connie just wants attention and she feels she gets that more with her friends and flirting with boys. When it comes to love, Connie views it like it was in the radio: full of promises, hook ups and parties every night. And for the most part, its like that for Connie. Take Eddie, for example, despite Connie not knowing him, she decided to spend the day with him.

It’s implied that after her parents left for the barbeque and left Connie sleeping, Connie woke up only to till be dreaming. The night before, as well as the experiences she had with her family then become the latent content- the things that the dream day is based on- and her encounter with Arnold Friend becomes the manifest content-the things that happen in the dream day. The idea of condensation is shown as soon as Connie starts her dream with the appearance of the radio and music. To Connie, music is just as important as looks and reminded her of love and fun, so it makes sense it appears in her dream, just like it was on when she was with Eddie, as well as when she was sleeping before her parents left and it was even present when she encountered Arnold Friend. Connie’s family was also absent in her dream. To Connie, her family is restriction, hinderance and annoyance. When Arnold first visits Connie, she tells him to leave since her family might see them together, this being a hinderance and annoyance to Connie. But unlike real Connie, she cares more about her family. She ultimately decides to go with Arnold because he threatened to hurt her family, which is uncharacteristic of her since she did say that her mom made her want to “throw up” (Oates). Connie not acting like her self is, however very common in dreams, since according to Sigmund Freud’s On Dreams, he too noted that Frau E.L. was acting very friendly with him in his dream of her (Freud, 11). The idea of displacement can be seen with Arnold Friend himself. Arnold seems to know everything about Connie and in the whole story, there’s only one character that “noticed everything and knew everything” (Oates) and that’s Connie’s mother. It makes sense that Arnold is a substitute for her mother since both are characters that make Connie want to die- Arnold more than her mom.

According to Sigmund Freud’s Five Lectures on Psychoanalysis, a dream is a repressed wishful impulse (Freud, 28) and Connie’s wishful impulse was to take a ride, be with boys and have fun however, this took a sour turn in Connie’s dream. Suddenly, it wasn’t like the way it was in movies or the way the songs promised. Not only that, but it was her vanity that attracted Arnold to her, the very thing that her mother would nag her about. Connie also stayed alone in her house the entire time, which was what she wanted- to be free from her family, but later grew to regret. It was because she was alone that Arnold Friend decided to visit her and harass her into going on a ride with him.

Connie’s dream of Arnold Friend gave insight of her fear of her being wrong about who she is as a person. She feared that her mother was right about her vanity not being everything that represented a person and Arnold Friend was a representation of that- originally looking like any other guy, only for it to be a façade.

Super Frog Saves Katagari

Katagari, the main character in Haruki Murakami’s Super-Frog Saves Tokyo, is a middle-aged debt collector. Since the end of the 1980’s and the end of Japan’s “bubble era” economy, debt collectors had been hated by society and Katagari was no different. To society, he was a dreg, a no body who only pesters them and reminds of a prosperous time now gone. Then, he met Frog a personification of his super- ego and embarks on a quest only Katagari can do to stop Worm, a personification of his Id (Murakami). It is through his quest with Frog that Katagari comes to terms with his place in society and that despite not mattering to society, he still has a purpose.

Katagari is single, 40 and is always being looked down upon by all those around him, so it makes sense that Frog is a personification of his super ego. This is- because according to Sigmund Freud’s The Dissection of the Psychical Personality, “In the course of development the superego also takes on the influences of those who have stepped into the place of parents—educators, teachers, people chosen as ideal models” (Freud,64). It would make sense that a person like Katagari would make a superhero his ideal model: someone who is extraordinary, who gets praised and admired and someone who always selfless even when it doesn’t benefit them. And in the end, Katagari wants that. But his place in society prevents that. While talking to Frog, Frog mentions how he raised his two siblings when his parents died and even set up their lives to be easy and successful at the expense of his own and still, his siblings hated him but like a hero would do, he didn’t complain (Murakami, 4). And even when he had to save Tokyo from Worm, he wasn’t going to get any admiration, but he still did it because that is what a hero would do.

The Worm shares many similarities with the Id. According to Freud, the Id is a dark place in our mind and it’s inaccessible to our personality (Freud, 72). Unlike the devil in the shoulder media portrays it as, the Id has no morality, no sense of good and evil and only exist for satisfaction. The Worm fits Murakami’s model of the human mind discussed by Matthew Strecher’s Magical Realism and the Search for Identity in the fiction of Haruki Murakami in which he states that “Murakami’s model of the human mind is fairly uniform throughout his literature… In general it is presented as a uniformly coded division between the world of the light and that of the dark, the latter corresponding to the unconscious realm. Murakami envisions the inner world of the mind as dark, cold, and lifeless” (Strecher, 270). Worm shares this parallel with the unconscious since is an unfeeling mass that lives under Tokyo that doesn’t like to do much except sleep in darkness and grow due to rumbles and reverberations which it then turns into anger (Murakami, 3). Katagari is always surrounded by hatred and animosity due to his line of work. He has to deal with people trying to kill him while collecting debts and he also has to deal with his co-workers and boss disrespecting him despite him being a flawless worker. And despite it all, doesn’t complain. By him keeping his feelings bottled up, it makes sense that Worm, a dark inaccessible part of him that he didn’t even know was there, grows bigger and more dangerous and becomes filled of hatred as time goes on- one could even say Worm is the society in which Katagari lives in. Worm is also like a real-life worm: it keeps growing so long as it’s underground and feeding off the dead carcasses and Worm lives on the darkness of Katagari’s mind keeps getting bigger by feeding off Katagari’s latent displacement in society.

Katagari’s quest is that of identity. At the beginning of the story, Katagari is a character that is fine with life, despite him being hated by everyone around him. His sister and brother hate him, his co-workers don’t think much of him and the only people that come close to showing Katagari any form of respect are the gangsters that he collects debts from. Overall, Katagari is complacent with life. Even when a giant 6-foot frog showed up to his flat and asked him to stop an earthquake caused by a Worm, he seemed to only to want to help Frog to get it over with. It was, ironically, Frog’s death that was the catalyst for Katagari wanting to change his attitude toward himself. Frog, as stated before, is a representation of what Katagari wants to be- his idol, his super-ego, his hero. But at the end of it all, he decays and dies which is the death of Katagari’s ideals of being the hero. When Frog dies, he is eaten by the remnants of Worm- it being a representation of society- and this is symbolic for how Katagari will never be a part of society. This is hinted at by Frog in his references to Leo Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina, especially when he said” “I would fight on alone. My chances of beating him by myself are perhaps just slightly better than Anna Karenina’s chances of beating that speeding locomotive” (Murakami, 7). And as it turns out, Frog had to ultimately fight Worm alone, since Katagari never showed up to help him. Although Katagari did help Frog fight Worm, he still lost to Worm, just like Anna lost her life to the train. Katagari is shown to, at the end of it all want to change. This was shown when, as he saw Frog dying, he told himself, “As soon as I get out of this hospital, he thought, I’ll buy Anna Karenina and “White Nights” and read them both. Then I’ll have a nice, long literary discussion about them with Frog” (Murakami, 9). He, at this point wanted to give his life more purpose. He wanted to do something else, something he normally wouldn’t do and that was read a book, discuss something with someone, even if that someone was Frog. But Frog wasn’t the only one dead, Worm was, too. No longer would Katagari be haunted by not fitting in society, nor would he be haunted by dreams of wanting to be extraordinary, hence his ultimate “restful, dreamless sleep” (Murakami, 10).

Before dying, Frog tells Katagari that not everything he sees is real, something which Patricia Welch comments on in her article Haruki Murakami’s Storytelling World. She says that “these words encapsulate the struggle that Murakami’s protagonists face. Lonely and isolated, they must nevertheless battle to forge an authentic identity in a dystopic world” (Welch, 59), which applies to Katagari as a character. He, at the end of it all had to change as a person, since his environment and his wants were always at odds with one another, exposing Katagari’s self-destructive tendencies. This was shown when he was talking to Frog about how unqualified he was, even telling him that he is growing bald and that he has a potbelly and diabetic tendencies. Although he doesn’t state it, him growing bald can be attributed to his stressful job, since after all, he does have to deal with many criminals and a wrong move could be fatal and the diabetic tendencies can be attributed to Katagari not taking good- enough care of his body, hence showing how self-destructive Katagari can be. However, not everything Katagari sees has to be reality, hence why he can be a choose to be different in a world that doesn’t care about him because no matter what, his position in life won’t change. Even if he is, he will never be a hero, he will never be admired, so he must take solace in the fact that he can only rely on himself at the end of the day.

Katagari, at the end of the day learned the lesson that even if society doesn’t care about one, one should care of themselves. Through the battle between Worm and Frog, Katagari was able to come to terms with his role in society as well as well as find purpose in his life.