Justin's Blog

The whole discussion of marriage and complex relationships have been bothering me a lot this whole week. While reading Their Eyes Were Watching God  by Zora Hurston, I had a very one-sided view of the toxic relationship between Jody and Janie.  Without a doubt, Jody is very controlling, always restricting Janie's freedom by not allowing her to attend public events or sit outside with other townsmen. She is not even allowed to reveal her own hair! Why? Because Jody is jealous that other guys will see the "beauty" of it.  But after a somewhat thoughtful book club discussion on Wednesday, I've become aware of a different perspective. Perhaps the fault of their weak relationship is at Janie's hand instead. Janie is the one who never opened up her feelings to Jody, and she is the one who takes advantage of his illness and brutally insult him for his mistreatments. In fact, Jody never intended to dominate Janie's life.  Ok, unlucky I guess. Poor Jody to hear such ag...

Is school really necessary? I never understood why society has stressed the value of education so much. I mean, when will I ever apply what I learned in my algebra or physics classes in real life? We all go to school, take 6 different courses, and go back home to study for our tests. Some of us do good, some of us fail, but who cares? By next year, most of us will probably forget what we learned anyways. However, after reading  Educated , a powerful memoir by Tara Westover, my perspective on school drastically shifted. Tara is a survivalist with a background completely different from our lives. She never received proper education for sixteen years because of her father's suspicion on the government. She was continuously abused by Shawn, her brother, as well. At age seventeen, she gets accepted to BYU, and few years later, she earns a PhD in history at Cambridge University. She didn't even know what the Holocaust was at the start! Nonetheless, during her time there, she learns a...