Listen and You'll Understand

Literature magically allows us to experience a new world and evinces an array of emotions, however, only when we are able to truly visualize one’s circumstances and reality can we truly empathize with others. When reading novels, poems, essays, songs, etc, about heavy topics such as sexual assault, war, poverty, or murder, there are times when I struggle to fully piece together the entire picture. Every adjective, pronoun, and verb used to convey the heaviness of each story is sometimes enough to experience the truly heavy punch to the face when read repeatedly. However, for the majority of the time, it isn’t enough. For me, literature is limited in its ability to convey a story and transport one to another world when it comes to our reality. What’s truly powerful and transporting is our auditory perception. Being able to hear every word spoken by the narrator with their unique accent, frequency, emotion, and volume. Listening to the noises of the environment that gives hints to one’s location, situation, and actions.

Through auditory perception, it allows for a deeper connection with another person on the opposite side of the globe through the emotion the listener experiences, sometimes simultaneously, with the storyteller. The ability to have a VR experience, to listen and see what the narrator saw, truly enhances one’s understanding of the story and our world’s reality. In the video “Clouds Over Sidra”, we meet a young girl named Sidra who is twelve years old and native to the country Syria. Within 8 minutes and 35 seconds, I was able to experience, learn, and relate much more to Sidra than I could’ve reading a paragraph on a white page. The babies crying, the father’s voice, the young students’ cacophony, the gravel scraping across the ground, the screams, the breeze. All of it transported me to her world and made her life more tangible to me, the person all the way on the other side of the world watching, listening, and experience her story and reality.

VR Isn't Empathy

Virtual reality is exciting. It entices us to new experiences, and it symbolizes the revolution of technology in our modern world. For some, though, it can be literally and figuratively dizzying. Especially when paired with a topic as heavy as the migrant plight, I am hesitant to suggest VR to someone who is looking to better his/her understanding of the topic.

It was not my first time using virtual reality headsets when I strapped one onto my head in my English class a few days ago. It most likely would not be the last time, either. As my eyes adjusted to the somewhat blurry picture, I saw the title of the video: The Displaced. As I had been given background on what I was going to watch, I thought the title was clever and poignant. It had captured my attention, and the allure of VR had worked its magic and made me excited to continue watching. Here, I caution the audience to recognize that "excitement" is not the emotion they may expect someone to feel before watching a video about the not-so-pretty tales of migrant children. But nonetheless, there I was.

As I continued watching, I could not find myself to focus so much on the children's stories as I could the heavy box weighing on my cheeks and the captions that required me to physically turn my body to read. Sure, I absorbed the story, and I understand that this blog should be centered around that. However, I find myself challenged to do so when the VR experience was so much on its own that I could not fully articulate a deeper understanding of the refugees' situations. And however I may wish to sympathize -- for I do not feel capable of empathizing, as I do not know their experiences for myself -- I think that in what was supposed to be the most real and raw way to see their lives, I found myself distracted and annoyed with the device I was using.

So what I must say of my takeaways, from the parts I was able to focus on, is that the children in the video are our near-polar opposites. We attempt to feel what they feel through a video on our phones, and a piece of technology only available to the most advanced. They, on the other hand, are perhaps some of the most non-materialistic humans I have ever seen. Among the rubble of what was once their homes and neighborhoods, the video ended on clips of the kids explaining how they find fulfillment and happiness in each other's presence, without a piece of tech in site. I think we have a lot to learn from them.

Is Meursault Empathetic?

From the very first paragraph of the book, the reader immediately gets a sense that Meursault has trouble showing emotion. There is no sense of urgency or mourning when he found out his mother died. He actually seemed more laid back and nonchalant about the whole situation than anything. From the first paragraph and on, the evidence becomes overwhelming. He admits he does not love Marie, he does not seem to care about Raymond abusing women, and lets not forget he killed a person with barley any motive.

However, as one gives the book a closer look, there is some evidence to show that Meursault is empathetic: "For some reason I thought of Maman. But I had to get up early the next morning"(39). Meursault admits that he was indeed thinking about his dead mother but than immediately suppresses the feeling with a directive. This creates a sense that he is indeed capable of emotion and empathy but he seems to have an internal battle with himself on whether or not he wants to show it. This brings me to question if he had a traumatic childhood experience leading to the suppression of his emotion in his adult life. I am curious to see throughout the book if we uncover anything from his childhood and if Meursault shows anymore hints of emotion and empathy.

Orientalism

In today's society an orientalist mindset is common. I think that the binary and power dynamic of Us vs them is natural no matter where you live. It is natural to consider your social group the superior one. Thus, without a good understanding of the "east" or the "other" in any instance-without mutual recognition- misunderstanding, even injustice, takes place. For instance, I have never been east of the east coast of the United States and for most Americans the "east" isn't as popular a travel destination as Europe or other states. This allows the media to take advantage of people's lack of knowledge and create entertainment that feeds off of people's willingness to believe that they are the "normal" or the "civilized." Movies such as Aladdin and Doctor Strange present the "east" as a mystery, as a place with unique powers only used for good when a western hero arrives.

I think that "The God of Small Things" is written for a "western" audience to create mutual recognition and empathy with the experiences of those of a different culture. However, I think that it also emphasizes the injustices that people everywhere are familiar with. Issues of social class, police brutality, and domestic abuse force the reader to consider classism, racism and sexism, mostly from the innocent point of view of children. Roy says in the "The God of Small Things", "[the violence of the police was] impelled by feelings that were primal yet paradoxically impersonal. Feelings of contempt born of inchoate, unacknowledged fear- civilization's fear of nature, men's fear of women, power's fear of powerlessness." These fears are seen in every society, but manifest themselves in different ways. I think by understanding this we can take a step away from the orientalist mindset.

Lear's Lesson

Throughout the play, the characters show a range of emotions. Lear, specifically, is characterized as the senile old man is who not to be taken seriously or respected. But, in his monologue in Act III Scene IV with Kent and the fool, I believe that Lear professes some of the more worthwhile sentiments in the entire play. If nothing else, he communicates the idea of empathy - an emotion that has yet to be expressed by any of the characters in King Lear.

Lear not only puts others above himself by insisting that Kent and the fool take shelter before him, but also begins to be truly empathetic when realizing what the lives of the less fortunate in his kingdom are like. Lear states, “Poor naked wretches, whereo’ver you are / That bide the pelting of this pitiless storm, / How shall your houseless heads and unfed sides, / Your looped and windowed raggedness, defend you / From seasons such as these? Oh, I have ta’en / Too little care of this!” (III.iiii.28-24). Lear experiences the brutal forces of nature, really for the first time in this passage, and it is what causes him to feel for the homeless and realize he should have done more for the them as king, because now he knows what it feels like to be one of them.

For me, this monologue by Lear and this realization are one of the most important moments in the play so far. Suffering is a theme throughout the play, but it is not until this speech that Lear makes a concrete statement on how to begin to understand others’ suffering. Lear’s empathy here serves to show that he is still a coherent man worthy of respect, and that he is multidimensional enough to put himself in someone else’s shoes and try and understand how life is for them. Everyone experiences varying levels of suffering in their lives, as shown by the excerpt from Frankl’s book. And, one cannot truly know the magnitude of another’s suffering until they exercise some empathy and try and see the situation through their eyes That is what Lear does here for the first time, in a moment of clarity for both himself and the reader.

Suffering for Others

While suffering is by no means a welcome or pleasant experience, to say the least, it is viewed as essential to being human. We all suffer at some point in our lives, though the degree to which we do is by no means the same. Some say that ignorance is bliss, but I believe that it is just close-minded and selfish. Even the most sheltered people cannot stay protected, in the majority of cases. The current order of the world demands suffering and pain be present in our daily lives, if not our own pain, we see the pain of others.

If nothing else, suffering allows for greater empathy, by suffering ourselves, we can more closely identify and feel for with others. While in most situations we cannot understand completely what someone else is going through, by having suffered at some point in our lives, we are a step closer to being able to be there for them.

One of the hardest comparisons I believe can be made is comparing one person's suffering to another's, because suffering is relative. Similar to many other situations, we believe our suffering is greater than our neighbors because humans are competitive creatures who want to be the best, even if being the best is really being the lowest. In order to make ourselves feel more justified in our pain we compare ourselves to others, even though we can in no way understand what they are going through.

Even if we think we are going through the same thing as someone, say you both have a beloved family member who has cancer, we still cannot compare our suffering to them because the same situation does not mean the same thing for every person. We do not know what goes on inside the heads of the people around us, we cannot be cocky enough to believe that we know how they are feeling.

I am not saying that we cannot try to understand people, we can be empathetic and supportive to those who are struggling. We cannot push them to think that their suffering is nothing or stupid, we have to be there for people, even if we do not understand. I think that if as a world we can become more empathetic and simply kind, then we will see change.

Our Beloved Stories

In Beloved, stories are a fundamental part of how the novel is constructed and they reveal meaning to both the characters and the reader. Denver is able to connect with her mom through the stories she is told, even when she isn't given that much detail. Later, Beloved is "fed" by the stories she is told. The way Beloved is constructed has the plot greatly advanced by each story that is told or flashback that is experienced. This construction especially highlights the importance of oral tradition is human society.

In a more general sense, stories and storytelling have a profound impact on one's psyche, and they are essential to having a healthy mind and healthy interactions with others. By telling each other stories, humans are able to build empathy, which contributes to a Benjaminian formation of identity. Building empathy in this way can also occur with written works. Studies have found a link between literary fiction and empathy. Our society needs to keep reading and telling stories, we won't be able to survive if we stop.

Sethe is a Badass

Throughout a lot of the books I've read in English class, there's always been a pretty consistent theme; the women in the novels are weak and shallow characters. In the Great Gatsby we had Daisy who was too coward to leave her unhappy and unfaithful marriage for someone who actually loved her. This was because he was not beyond rich or to the social caliber she requires. In Their Eyes Were Watching God, Janie didn't really develop until the end of the novel when she realizes what she deserves. She is brutally beaten physically and verbally by her second husband Jody, after being in a one sided and less than passionate marriage with her first husband Logan yet she stays in the marriage with Jody and doesn't speak up for herself. Obviously, he's her source of income and it's not easy to up and leave someone who is your main source of support but it was very hard to read and quite frankly infuriating watching him push her around with her not being able to say anything. (Side note: she does develop as a character and holds her own towards the end but the middle was a whole lot of her being pushed around)

Sethe is a badass. And that's just one part of what makes Beloved so good. She sticks up for herself and is an extremely empathetic and dynamic character which is so refreshing to read. One example from the text that shows those traits is when her and Paul D. are arguing about Beloved staying at Sethe's house, "I can't place it. It's a feeling in me." "Well, feel this, why don't you? Feel how it feels to have a bed to sleep in and somebody there not worrying you to death about what you got to do each day to deserve it. Feel how that feels. And if that don't get it, feel how it feels to be a colored woman roaming the roads with anything God made liable to jump on you. Feel that (80)".

I felt after reading that text that I should start clapping because not only was it written so real and well but it was also huge breakthrough moment of Sethe's character to me. The reader now sees how empathetic she is and how she doesn't take shit anything from anyone. Not only did she put Paul D. in his place but it showed the alliance between women in this novel. She watches out for Denver and Beloved and they both watch out for her in turn. That solidarity along with finally reading a book where the main female character is someone I'm rooting for, is why Beloved is so good.