Summary and Response Reflection:
In my FIQWS Content Seminar, we were given an assignment to show our understandings of the readings “The Yellow Wallpaper” by Gilman and Lecture I by Freud. I was given a choice to pick 1 out of 3 of the recommended prompts for this assignment. I chose to respond to the essay prompt of “Do you think ‘The Yellow Wallpaper’ illustrates Freud’s criticism of most doctors?” I chose this prompt because I understood most of the information about neglectful doctors during the reading of Freuds lecture. The point of this summary and response essay was to show our understanding of the texts, and to give insight on own ideas brought by them.
Throughout class discussions, I was able to grasp Freud’s concepts a lot better, by listening to everyone’s own perspective and understanding the text more clearly, and to put my own take on the discussion. This made is easier for me to decide on the prompt and the topic of the essay. During the writing process of this paper, I was able to reread main aspects and key points of both literatures to distinguish my main points and opinions. Also, to connect the ideas of Freud ideas towards Gilman’s story. While writing the essay I was able to make connections between Freud’s ideas and Gilman’s story. I was intrigued by the whole writing and thinking process of this essay because I was able to bring my own perspective on Freud’s ideas, and how they reflected into the short story.
Exlporatory Reflection:
“The Black Cat” is about the coping mechanism of repression and how it relates toFreudian theory. When given the short story choices for the exploratory essay, I was immediately drawn to the author Edgar Allan Poe. Since I have read one or more of his work before, I wasexcited to read another. I’ve enjoyed his work in the past because of the bizarre and weird ideashe uses for his writings. Although the prompt encouraged me to think critically on how “The Black Cat” connects to Freud, I found it difficult to explain the connections between the shortstory and Freuds theory.
Figuring out what specific Freudian concepts were involved in the short story was slightly challenging. I found it challenging because there were limited examples of howrepression and wishful impulse were used in “The Black Cat”. I began by introducing the text and Freud’s idea of wishful impulses. I used the idea of wishful impulses to show that drinking allowed him to give into his violent ways. The idea of wishful impulses suggests that we all have desires that we repress in our own ways. In process of writing this paper I had to consider the stressors in the narrator’s life that led him to his personality change. In addition to the factors that led him to his personality change, I explain why he continued drinking as a way to cope with his violent acts.
This assignment helped me in engaging in the course learning outcome by showing me how the work of psychoanalysis brings forth ways an individual is representing themselves in society. People represent themselves in society through their values in life, how they act, how they think, and how they are perceived by the public. The narrator’s attempt at repressing his violent memories show that he wants to represent himself in a positive way to society. I explain this by concluding that the repression of his violent memories was a weakness that led to his drastic personality change.
The point of the exploratory essay was to convey the connection of Sigmund Freud’s theories to Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Black Cat”. This assignment also encouraged me to revealthe ideas of how an individual can use alcohol to partake in their impulsive desires and delusions. Despite the difficulty in finding examples of Freuds ideas in the short story, this assignment gave examples of how psychoanalysis can affect individuals in society. In many ways this assignment strengthens my understanding of Freudian theories by providing examples of how people repress their wishful desires that will be ultimately be released.
Critical Research Reflection:
For this final essay for my FIQWS courses I was glad to be writing about fairy tales,especially the Brothers Grimm original folklore. I’ve loved fairy tales ever since I was little likeevery other kid in the world. To know where the originals came from was intriguing, even though they are written quite unconventional they still can impact a child’s life. Fairy tales help children who are either being sheltered from the world, or simply don’t understand it.
At first, I was hesitant to write this paper because I wasn’t sure if my ideas were strong enough, or even made any sense. After multiple tries searching for any articles or journal entries on the CCNY library cite, I found one that was perfect in helping me strengthen my idea and thesis for this final essay. I felt confident in creating my own idea pertaining to a child’sdevelopment that connects back to Freudian concepts.
This essay seemed easy enough to connect back to the individual and society because myoverall theme involved children growing up in a world that they don’t completely understand.This assignment helped me to be more engaging in the course learning outcome by showing me how wish fulfillment can be ensued by many outlets for an individual. This assignment helped me understand rhetorical situations by teaching me how to analyze the purpose, audience, genre and the perspective of the author. By using fairy tales, children are taught to learn how their emotions can be expressed and that there should be no shame in having them while living in a society filled with cruel judgement and negative output.
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