Fitzwilliam Darcy; She Did Not Fix Him

    Pride and Prejudice is a romantic period novel written by Jane Austin about Elizabeth Bennet and Fitzwilliam Darcy. Mr. Darcy is a very rich man, whereas the Bennets are part of the gentry class(lower class nobles). When people often think of Pride and Prejudice, or Jane Austin’s works in general, people believe they delve rather deeply into the “I can fix him” mentality, but I believe this to be false. In the beginning, we are presented with the handsomest of men, and a rich one at that. However, we discover him to be unlikable in nature, and for his faults of pride and vanity to be clear. His insufferable character is obvious to all those around, but he is changed. “By whom?”, you may ask. By no other than himself, but he chose to change for Elizabeth Bennet. Elizabeth Bennet does not fix Mr. Darcy, he fixes himself.

    First, I’d like to look at his first proposal to her(yes, he proposed more than once). This proposal shows him the same as when she met him; a rude and unlikable individual. “In vain have I struggled. It will not do. My feelings will not be repressed. You must allow me to tell you how ardently I admire and love you.”(Austin, 103) He is adamant about not repressing his feelings, as though he has no thought even to her own feelings. He also says he has “struggled in vain”, showing that he sees his time suppressing his feelings for her as a struggle, one he alone had to endure. He lacks empathy for her in this passage, and blinds himself with his own poorly expressed desires. Although he may love her, to put this in context, he had suggested to Mr. Bingley that he shouldn’t marry Miss June Bennet. He had a prejudice against Elizabeth’s sister since she was so reserved, he believed she didn’t truly love Mr. Bingley. Not to mention how he saw himself as better than the Bennets, feeling that he shall make an exception for Elizabeth, but the rest of her family is so below him(due to social classes). Elizabeth, of course, rejected his proposal, due to the fact he had jeopardized her sister’s and his friend’s romance, and that he had no respect for her family.

    Then, looking at his second proposal to her, we see how he has had a change of heart. Six months had passed, and he had changed. He told his friend to give June Bennet a chance, and he had much time to gain respect for the Bennets. He says, “You are too generous to trifle with me. If your feelings are still what they were last April, tell me so at once. My affections and wishes are unchanged, but one word from you will silence me on this subject forever.”(Austen, 196) In this proposal, he practically thanks her in saying “you are too generous to trifle with me”, meaning that she is doing him a favor by being around him and in no way does she owe him her presence, as he implied in the first proposal. He also promises her choice. The first time, he expected her to accept immediately, the first time he expected her gratitude, but now no longer blinded by pride, he is willing and asking to listen to her.

Clearly, in the time they were apart, is when he grew to change. It is not her that changed him if she wasn’t even with him during the six months of his personality glow-up. He chose to change himself because he realized he was wrong, and in the end, by offering her the choice to reject him and for him to no longer bother her, he shows that he is no longer acting selfishly. By doing this, he proves that he is not changing to get her, but rather to respect her, simply because it is the right thing to do.

                        Citations:                                        

Austen, Jane. Pride and Prejudice. Edited by Vivien Jones, Penguin Classics, 2003.

Why You Need to Read The Ballad Of Songbirds and Snakes

 (SMALL SPOILERS FOR BOTH THE BOOK AND MOVIE)

Image supplied by IMBd

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt10545296/ 

The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, written by Suzanne Collins, is the fourth and final book in the Hunger Games series and is arguably the best book she’s written. The story follows eighteen year old Coriolanus Snow as he’s chosen to be the mentor of Lucy Gray Baird in the tenth annual hunger games. Throughout the book we, the reader, get to be inside of [future] president Snow’s head in one of the most important moments in his life, altering him to be the man we see throughout the rest of the books. When the movie was released in theaters, although it was a good rendition, there were a multitude of moments that were changed and/or taken out that should have been present. Overall, you should read The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes at least once in your life as there were important moments in the book that were not present in the movie. 

As I mentioned in my last blog post, Suzanne Collins heavily relies on her first person narrative to move the story along. Throughout the entire book, we are inside Coriolanus’ mind so we can observe what he is thinking and how that affects his actions. In the movie, the audience is only allowed to see the actions he does without context, causing heavy misinterpretations of his motives. The first misinterpretation that comes to mind would probably be Coriolanus’ reaction to Arachne’s death. In the movie Coriolanus is depicted as heavily shocked to the point he can’t move and, after the horrifying event, simply moves on with his life with one less classmate. He views her death as a horrifying thing and doesn’t really do anything about it later on. Meanwhile in the books he takes a far more tactical approach to her death. While Arachne’s dying he is definitely heavily shocked, and even brought back to a time during the war, but afterward he sees her death as another way to make himself more pleasurable to the Capitol. “He was particularly pleased to catch a quick shot of Livia Cardew flailing her way through the crowd at the sound of the gunfire… Coriolanus to the rescue, Livia to the nearest exit.” (Collins 105). It is clear to see that although he views Arachne’s death as a bad thing for her, he views it as an honorable addition to his reputation. 

Clemensia Dovecote’s character was also heavily altered and misinterpreted from the book compared to the movie. In the movie, Clemensia is depicted as this bratty young woman who jumps at the opportunity to take credit for other people’s work if it makes her look better. This causes her encounter with the snakes to seem partially karma related and also allows the audience to feel less sympathy for her when she goes down. Meanwhile in the books, she appears to be a much sweeter person and actually barely takes credit for the proposal. She says that the proposal was the product of a class discussion, which it was, and only mentions that she’s responsible for putting all the ideas together with Coriolanus and printing out the documents. She attempts to spread out the credit to all of her classmates while highlighting herself and Coriolanus to prove that they did the work Dr. Gaul assigned. And it seems that Dr. Gaul takes this explanation with little to no suspicion when talking to the two of them. What makes the snake situation worse though is how Clemensia thinks that she’ll be fine after seeing Coriolanus put his hand into the snake’s container, with no reaction, just to have six cling onto her arm right afterward. To add salt to the wound, while she’s in the hospital, she’s not even told that she’s being quarantined. All she thinks is that no one wants to visit her while she’s hospitalized, adding far more sympathy to her character that isn’t present in the movie’s rendition. 

Overall, like many movie renditions, The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes comes nowhere close compared to its book counterpart. The book contains another layer of depth and personalization that is honestly quite impossible to reflect in a movie (or any type of media that doesn’t involve the audience seeing internal dialogue). Not to mention that the book has a multitude more moments such as Arachne and the twin’s funerals that introduces us to Coriolanus’ life before the tenth hunger games properly started. It is also in these funeral scenes that we see another type of cruelness inflicted to the tributes that is far worse than the movie adaptation. Overall, although The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes is a good movie to watch alone, it is best to read the book if you haven’t already.

Image Supplied by Amazon

https://www.amazon.com/Ballad-Songbirds-Snakes-Hunger-Games-ebook/dp/B07V5KKSZT

Are Final Exams Too Stressful?

 

Every year, high school students everywhere become more and more anxious leading up to the culmination of the semester that brings final exams. Almost any student can agree that they have increasing levels of stress as exams approach, but, is this too overwhelming? Are final exams too stressful?

On average, a student will have about 4-5 classes that include a final exam. These classes could be subjects like Math, fields of Science, Social Studies, or English. Usually, these exams are a big deal. A final exam could be worth up to 30% of your grade, which leaves students with the anxiety of potential failure leaving them with a bad grade in a class. Additionally, the pressure of studying for multiple exams across multiple subjects can cause a lot of anxiety in terms of memorizing course content. Sometimes, it feels like there's so much to memorize, and so little time. At some high schools, students feel overwhelmed leading up to the exam due to not having much time to study as a result of other schoolwork. This is especially true for me as a high school student. With the addition of semester grades being due soon, a lot of work tends to be thrown at you the weeks prior to finals. Without time to study for finals because of all the other work, how are you supposed to pass exams for those same classes? It almost seems impossible. 

Is this too much? The answer is a resounding yes. The expectations put on high school students, especially regarding final exams, is a frustrating amount that leaves students extremely overwhelmed. In Cerrito College's Student Health Services, they analyze why students are so stressed during final exams: "The panic preceding finals appears to result from two general causes: distorted thinking about exams and behavioral patterns in preparing for them." A way to understand the issue with final exams is understanding why these things are occurring in students. 

Distorted thinking about exams refers to an unrealistic idea that students aren't adequate enough to preform well. But, why is this? To me, distorted thinking is distorted for a reason. If final exams weren't generally as difficult, students wouldn't have distorted thinking about their exams. Students should feel at least an ounce of confidence in themselves. I mean, they took this course, why shouldn't they be able to do the exam? Because, these final exams are extreme. Not that final exams should be totally easy, but why do they have to be so difficult? Multiple classes, so much material, its basically madness for students. 

Their second example, behavioral patterns in exam preparation, refers to study habits. I'd like to point out this description of a "regular" study habit from the same article: "TYPE A ("Regular"). Concerned about learning the material as well as performing on exams...From day one, paces self through semester with regularly scheduled study and review periods...Usually does not have to cram...Has positive attitude toward exams and professors...Sees exams as opportunities to demonstrate well prepared understanding of material...Gets a good night's rest before exams." This is what they refer to as a regular, presumably, "healthy" study habit. First of all, clearly if students are concerned about exams, they are concerned about learning material. A lack of concern for learning material isn't what causes exam stress, because students are concerned. It's about the pressure to learn the material. Second, "usually does not have to cram" is another thing I'd like to point out. At least in my case, due to the excessive amounts of testing I have before final exams, I barley even have time to study for the finals because I'm too busy studying for the many tests beforehand. The amount of quizzes and tests I have the week before finals is an irregularly large amount, and way too much to also expect me to study for finals. It's unrealistic. 

So, should exams be totally easy? Should schools not have exams at all? Not necessarily. Exams can be challenging, but, at least in my case, I'm basically left with no time to prepare. The expectations put on students to be able to spend hours studying is insane when you take into account the egregious amount of quizzes that, at least I, have beforehand. Quizzes from those same classes. These unrealistic expectations are what cause exam stress. Being a bad studier causes stress, but being overwhelmed doesn't necessarily help study habits either. It's an endless cycle of stress, and putting the blame on students for not being good enough only proves my point that students are pushed too hard. So, yes, exams are too stressful, and they need to be handled with student's mental health in mind. 

Cerritos College, Student Health Services, https://www.cerritos.edu/shs/mental-wellness/final-exam-panic.htm