Have you
ever thought about the different connections between your identity and the
experiences that you have lived? Most of the time we are not aware of these
issues, but the truth is that our identity has been built up from for years and
years, made up from past experiences. That’s why the relationships between
people are so important. If we think about The
hours and Mrs. Dalloway we can
recognize this element on the characters. The differences between the same characters in
both novels were determined by the decisions that they made in the past, but
also by other people’s actions. Do you remember the fact that in Mrs. Dalloway Clarissa never meets
Septimus? Despite that they never see each other, Clarissa gets involved (in a
way) in Septimus’ death. In the same way, the actions of the different
characters in The Hours are closely
related to a future event in their lives, even when those events (at the beginning)
have no apparent relation between each other.
I am
leaving you now a short comic made by Luke Pearson which talks a little bit
about how some actions can rebound into other people, in a way in which you can’t
even imagine. (Open the image in a new window to make it bigger :D )
Christina Cortez Á.
Hello, Christina! Before commenting about the novel, I want to say that the comic you shared with us is amazing! It made me think about the importance of our actions since we never know how we can affect the rest with our attitudes, feelings, or actions—if it is in a good way, perfect; but this can also be in a terrible way as some of the people in the picture. That’s why it is important to be conscious of our actions because they may even affect people we do not know. For instance, Clarissa Dalloway and Septimus—he had an impact on her life and they did never meet each other.
ResponderBorrarNow, you’re right when saying that our identities are made by experiences, people, facts, decisions, etc. The past is the one in charge of building our identities; every single thing we do will have a resonance in our future. As in the novel The Hours, we can see three different women—separated from one another by time and space—whose present is “X” because of their choices in the past. This allows us to compare, for example, the reality that Clarissa lives in The Hours and the reality that she lives in Mrs. Dalloway: in the first she lives with Sally (her friend in Mrs. Dalloway) and her life is completely different from the one she lives in the other novel: living with Richard Dalloway in a rich context. Thus, we can begin to compare different realities and identities depending on the decisions made in the past and ask ourselves, “What would have happened if I—Virginia, Laura, Clarissa—had done this and not what we—she—actually did? Nobody knows that answer…
Christina, I have read the comic and I found it very interesting as it shows what our actions –even the smaller ones- can really provoke to other people in a different way. I liked the way every character is connected to another!
ResponderBorrarRegarding your comment, I agree with your opinion because our present lives are based on what we have done and chosen in the past. I’m thinking on the phrase “forget your past and live/enjoy your present.” I must confess that I consider the first part wrong since our past can never be forgotten. However, we always learned from things or decisions we do –everything counts- and those experiences may help us see life from another perspective. Moreover, as you mentioned, our actions influence others’ lives, like Septimus and his death (as Javiera said). I would like to add a personal example of a person that genuinely influenced me. I had a cousin who was a history teacher. I recall that we had pretty amazing conversations about life and we shared our perspectives -very divergent though- based on experiences. He used to tell me all the time “treasure every moment of your daily life, even small details. If you don’t value them now, you will later regret for haven’t done it.” Well, ever since he told me that I have valued what surrounds me (my family) and the opportunity to wake up every day. When he died from cancer two years ago, I felt sorrow at his death because I can’t understand the reason why people like him, full of life, have to die, and others that are a real waste of space and air must survive.
Cristina, I think the comic you posted is really clever and help people understand the ripple effect we find in both The Hours and Mrs. Dalloway. It can be appreciated how social interactions affect situations and people and how it can affect back the same person.
ResponderBorrarIn relation to your post, I completely agree with what you stated; our experiences, decisions and background make who we are now, they shape our personality and our behavior (something also done by society, I think). This is perfectly illustrated in the women of novels. For instance, we have Laura, who feels as though she has woken up in someone else’s life and how much her role as a housewife asphyxiates her. Basically, she regrets about the decisions she made in her life for they took her to the situation and position she lives now. We also find Clarissa as another example of regret and doubts, who also questions the choices she has made.
The comic follows the idea of the connection between events in life (and obviously in books), but what really called my attention was that what happen in the comic is true. I mean we have had some days in which someone tells us something that ruin our day and then we unconscously ruin other person's day, that happens daily. Unfortunately, that's part of our nature haha! we and our actions are connected to the other people's actions. It's sad but I don't know how to change it, I mean who knows how to do it?
ResponderBorrarOur actions may affect a person who we don't even know, as in the case of Mrs. Dalloway when Septimus death really changed Clarissa's life, in that case it was in a positive way, but mostly in life we are blaming others for our mood or our way of being. I would like that people could take other's experiencies to make their lives better and to live in a world with less frustrated people.
I think that the comic represent in a very graphic way the idea of the ripples that we have discussed in class. Everything we do has an impact on someone else, and maybe we don't even notice. This is seen throughout The Hours since the three women --Clarissa, Laura and Virginia-- are connected in a different way, just as the characters in the comic are. We have Virginia writing Mrs. Dalloway, which is read by Laura, who thinks that her role as a woman is not what she wanted for her life and, therefore, decides to abandon his role as a wife and mother. This had an impact on Richard since his personality was affected by that experience. He wrote a book in which Clarissa Vaughan is the main character and who, at the same, is the 20th-century version of Clarissa Dalloway, Virginia's main character in Ms. Dalloway. As you may see, this chain of connections reveals the relations between every character, even though this relation is not always direct, very much like the case of Septimus and Clarissa Dalloway.
ResponderBorrarI believe that the comic represents that complex idea of connectedness in a very simple way, and this makes it very useful and easy to understand. Maybe we could create a comic like that with the characters from Cunningham's book!