ENGL 200 D: Reading Literature: Literature in the Marketplace

From Jonathan Swift’s “The Lady’s Dressing Room”

Women & Men

This poem was written from a man’s perspective, through Strephon. This man saw Celia, his significant other or a prostitute, as this otherworldly beauty. He saw women, in general, as beautiful goddesses.He entered her room without her knowing and was immediately disgusted and disturbed by what he saw.He sees dirty combs, a spittoon, and a chamber pot.

Swift uses Men and Strephon interchangeably, but by using a name, Strephon, Swift made it more personal than “This man…”  Swift seems like sexist to his own sex. In a way, he’s claiming that men are so engrossed in appearance that they forget that women are men but with different anatomies. So men should open their eyes to this realization. I believe that is what Swift concludes about men.

Women were portrayed as goddesses who are perfect and clean. It is flattering that men saw women as goddesses but that is only because women put time into making themselves look presentable. It is like celebrities getting their hair and makeup done for some fancy award show. The non-famous folk idolizes them because they are glamorous. Once the award show is over, the “war paint” comes off. The regular people then actually see what they truly look like and like Strephon, they don’t like what they see.

I think that Swift wanted to point out that women are human beings. With their faults and disgusting habits, they are here to stay. And men, like Strephon, should suck it up and realize that as long as he is living and is attracted to women, he better start getting used to it.

“History is nothing but the succession of the separate generations, each of which exploits the materials, the capital funds, the productive forces handcd down to it by all preceding generations, and thus, on the one hand, continues the traditional activity in completely changed circumstances and, on the other, modifies the old circumstances with a completely changed activity.”

Karl Marx is stating that history is an important tool for human beings to use for their own advantage.  Also, because mistakes can and will always happen, humans can learn from past mistakes in order to prevent those mistakes from happening again such as war, famine, and the like. However, there are a few situations where events are inevitable. One situation would be the current situation of the economy. Our economy, as we all know, is struggling in an economic depression but this has already occurred in the 1930’s-the Great Depression. Perhaps, when the economy has stabilized, our future successors will prevent another economic downfall. Thus, we learn from our past from ancestors, past successors, etc, we can better ourselves economically.

History helps us define ourselves and have a better understanding of what we are. It gives us a sense of identity because every human has his/her own history to claim. We create our own history (past, present, future) which can cause problems such as our current economy. Yet, we can also produce optimistic events, for example, having an African American president. The citizens of America created history when we elected Democratic candidate  Barack Obama as president because we tore down the racial barriers that prevented non-Caucasian candidates to be presidents.

The past gives us an guidance on how to govern ourselves and to help us economically. And the future gives us, perhaps, an optimistic view for the unknown. In some way, it gives us a sliver of hope that things will get better because it has already happened in the past. We are a part of history whether we play a large or small role.

2nd Paper-Ashley

I’m still working on how to end my essay, so I’m sorry you have to read an unfinished conclusion.

For the second major paper I want to focus on either Dan or Debra and use Smith’s Theory of Moral Sentiments and Karl Marx’s German Ideology to support my paper.

Dan-I want to address how he wants to kill himself but in order to do that, he has to increase his very low supply of Whuffie. He wants to die in dignity because he doesn’t have enough Whuffie to be remembered in the Bitchun Society. Only the rich will be remembered because it is the rich that we admire or want to be.

Debra-I want to address the fact that ownership of property isn’t valued because whoever gains the most Whuffie can take things. Basically everything is up for grabs and in a way, the value of ownership is diminished. Labour isn’t treated as labour.

I also want to include Karl Marx’s German Ideology because, “an individual cannot be separated or analyzed apart from his/her surroundings.” In the Bitchun utopia, individuals aren’t defined because of their own personal qualities, but rather their earning, Whuffie.

Basically, Whuffie is what makes the Bitchun Society function.  I’ll most likely analyze Dan because of his desire to die drives him to increase his Whuffie. It’s a great motivation for a morbid goal. If possible, I want to use both Marx and Smith for Dan but also use Debra as an example of how Whuffie doesn’t value ownership.

“History is nothing but the succession of the separate generations, each of which exploits the materials, the capital funds, the productive forces handcd down to it by all preceding generations, and thus, on the one hand, continues the traditional activity in completely changed circumstances and, on the other, modifies the old circumstances with a completely changed activity.”

Karl Marx is stating that history is an important tool for human beings to use for their own advantage.  Also, because mistakes can and will always happen, humans can learn from past mistakes in order to prevent those mistakes from happening again such as war, famine, and the like. However, there are a few situations where events are inevitable. One situation would be the current situation of the economy. Our economy, as we all know, is struggling in an economic depression but this has already occurred in the 1930’s-the Great Depression. Perhaps, when the economy has stabilized, our future successors will prevent another economic downfall. Thus, we learn from our past from ancestors, past successors, etc, we can better ourselves economically.

History helps us define ourselves and have a better understanding of what we are. The past gives us an guidance on how to govern ourselves and to help us economically. And the future gives us, perhaps, an optimistic view for the unknown. In some way, it gives us a sliver of hope that things will get better because it has already happened in the past. We are a part of history whether we play a large or small role.

Ashley Kim

For my essay, I will address the issue of value in money and how money is valued in different ways. I think to answer, “what makes money challenging to use?,” I would use Gertrude Stein’s, “Money,” because it established that money has different interpretations for different people. To the normal, working class, money is truly money. Money is something that has value. It is something that we earn to make a living and to basically, survive in this world. “When you earn money, and spend money every day anybody can know the difference between a million and three….” Those who votes public money thinks differently. “Anybody who votes it to be gathered in as taxes knows money is not money.” That is evidence that money is difficult to use because what you think money is, may or may not differ from my view on money.

I am contemplating which I should use: Locke’s work or Adam Smith’s work. Both address the issue of labour and how labour has value. In Locke’s work, money is a tangible thing that doesn’t go to waste.  I just think it is appropriate to use either Locke or Smith’s texts to support that money has value but people have different views of value so that is why money is a challenge to use.

However, since I am going to use “value,” I want to use Swift’s poem to support that people view value differently. Yet, then I would have to tie in that idea with money. So I may or may not use that poem.

I don’t have a clear, concrete idea of what I’m going to do with the essay and I’ll probably change my initial approach.

Value and labour are two of the key topics and both play important roles in almost all the texts we have read. From John Locke’s, “The Two Treatisies of Civil Government” to Smith’s, “Theory of Moral Sentiment” and, “The Wealth of Nations.” I want to focus on “The Division of Labour.”

In Adam Smith’s “The Wealth of Nations: Book 1, Ch.1: Of the Division of Labour,” we discussed that dividing our labour is not a natural want, or instinct, in human nature. On the contrary, humans want to do little labour, work, as little as possible. In other words, we like being lazy, but our desire for “shiny, new things,” keeps us labouring away. This is because, we see value in those objects. To get those “shiny things,” we desire to exchange goods, products, and the like. To do this, we need to do labour to trade and make profit. So, your goods (products and the like) have to be beneficial and seen valuable to the person(s) you are trading with. Otherwise, if you are unable to trade, you can also “kiss ass” to the people you are trading with. But that eats up too much time, and humans rather have the easier option.

There seems to be, or rather, there is a connection between value and labour either we do labour to get valuable things or to appear valuable. We work to obtain things that have value in them such as laptops, cellphones, money. This never ending cycle of labour, trade, and obtain keeps us industrious.

From Jonathan Swift’s “The Lady’s Dressing Room”

Women & Men

This poem was written from a man’s perspective and the main character was male. The male’s point of view was seen through Strephon. This man saw Celia, his significant other or a prostitute (who really knows), as this otherworldly beauty. Actually, I believe he saw women, in general, as beautiful goddesses.He entered her room without her knowing and was immediately disgusted and disturbed by what he saw. Then reality hit him and he realizes that she isn’t this goddess he thought she was. He sees dirty combs, a spittoon, and of all things, a chamber pot. He then looks into the chamber pot maybe hoping that she doesn’t (excuse my language) take a shit. I believe that Swift used Men and Strephon interchangeably. Even though there would be a line with “Strephon” and not “Men,” Strephon is a man. Swift made it more personal by using an actual name instead of, “This man…”

Women was the “theme” of the poem. To be more exact, the poem was about women, therefore, it would makes sense that an important word would be “women.” Women were portrayed as goddesses that are perfect and clean. (Men could only imagine) It is flattering that men saw women as goddesses but that is when women put time into making themselves look presentable. It is like celebrities getting their hair and makeup done for some fancy award show. The non-famous folk idolizes them because they are glamorous. Once the award show is over, the “war paint” comes off. The regular people then actually see what they truly look like and like Strephon, they don’t like what they see.

Just from the poem, the readers can depict how society viewed females and males. I think that Swift wanted to point out that women are human beings. Sometimes I wonder if Swift is trying to portray women as vain creatures. In either case, he has the point across that women, with their faults and disgusting habits, are here to stay. And men, like Strephon, should suck it up and realize that as long as he is living (and is attracted to women), he better start getting used to it.