“Pause. Silence. “I have done things, too, which I would not tell you, son-neither tell God, if he didn’t already know. So you set down while I fix us something to eat.”
In “Thank you Ma’am” by Langston Hughes, “who you are today is a reflection of who you were in the past” is not a prominent theme. It’s fairly concealed, weaved in gracefully within text and dialogue, peeking out intermittently in a subtle, almost indistinct manner. This theme mostly makes reference to the protagonist, Luella Bates Washington Jones. --------After seeing Roger attempt to steal her purse in order to acquire a new pair of shoes, Luella doesn’t shriek , pursue or inform the police about his delinquency. Instead, she drags the startled boy back to her modest kitchenette to educate him about a fundamental lesson of life. She then proceeds to make him clean up, prepare food for him and comprehend the rationale of his thieving ways . Luella then commences to refer back to the times when she found herself in homologous situations and committed acts she now regretted. Throughout the context of the dialogue between her and Roger, it becomes apparent that Luella has previously struggled with her past. Luella does not appear to recoil at the prospect of having to converse with Roger o about her past but still seems to be reluctant to expand upon the events individually. As someone who loves psychology and neuroscience, I can infer/conclude that her past was what formed her persona, and fabricated those impregnable values within her. Luella is still a reflection of who she used to be. Her current character is a manifestation of lessons learned and acquired wisdom. Being a reflection doesn’t signify being a duplicate of your previous self, unaltered and unaffected by life. A reflection is always disparate, never entirely congruent. A mirror image will never be you, its an intricate likeness of you with changes: whether it be rearward text on your clothes, unanticipated weight-gain or a possibly better-looking, seemingly preoccupied doppelganger. Luella has learned from her mistakes, her faux-pas as a younger being and has been able to use this to develop into a well-formed, grounded character.
The Definitive Book of Body Language by Allan and Barbara Pease, is all about behavioral psychology and analysis of an individuals movement forms and expressions. Physical and facial movements demonstrate that you are a likeness of who you were in the past. The book says that we humans, can make and recognize approximately 250,000 facial expressions and gesticulations. People convey their thoughts and emotions by displaying them physically, deliberately or instinctively. Whether someone is 90 years old or 15 years, a down-mouth appearance does not correspond with happiness and indicates a mood or state of negativity. Body Language applies to everyone. Throughout one’s existence it is reckoned that his or her experiences form them into a distinctive person, an individual who has learned from his past and acquired understanding and awareness. That is wrong. We don’t all end in a finalized state of enlightenment: in fact some of us end up shaped into unbalanced, world-hating, cantankerous people. Either way, there is a rationale behind this all, and it’s not that life has caused us to metamorphose into new people. Looking at an individual and scrutinizing constant facial expressions and movements, you can tell that what they were like before.
For example, take two adults: accidental strangers that have never met encountered each other before. They are made to sit down facing each other and a platter of iced cupcakes is delivered to them. Now, all they have to do is talk and eat until all the cupcakes are finished. When sharing the cupcakes, a pampered, only-child will almost always reflexively keep his/her hand in short proximity to the cupcake platter, to make sure they have a faster, more immediate access to the cupcakes once they are done. Also, they often eat significantly more rapidly so as to make sure they can take hold of a second one as soon as possible. Someone who has grown up with siblings will generally take his/her time to eat and keep his/her hands at a respectful distance so as to allow liberty for whoever wants the cupcake next to take it. A lot of only-children have grown up being cosseted and highly-esteemed by family members because of their singularity. As well as that, they are habitually raised getting more for just them and in turn, develop a certain innate sense of self-interest: knowingly or inadvertently. Children growing up with numerous siblings acquire a sense of selflessness and develop an inherent sense of magnanimity: they have learned to be tolerant and wait and distribute things equally whilst single-children have not. No matter how we think we have changed over years, and how much we believe that we have grown into a different, changed person: behavioral and facial movements and patterns ascertain that this “new and altered” person we are now, is just a simple reflection of what we were in the past.
Both “Thank You Ma’am” by Langston Hughes and The Definitive Book of Body Language by Allan and Barbary Pease have proven to us that somewhere, you are a reflection of who you were. The fact that people eventually change is irrefutable, I mean : Of course we do! To say that life has turning points and state that we never change is an inconsistency. We adjust, we adapt, we amend and transform. But deep down, there is an intrinsic commonality between who we are now and who we used to be. To say we are the same but different is in itself: paradoxical, yet it seems appropriate for this context. We undergo minute alterations, whether it be thought process, belief, ideology or our habitual view of things yet we prevail as a sole individual inside: the one that we always were.
“we endure as different beings but the heart persists as is, and never will it falter.” - Dakshina Chetti (2010)
In “Thank you Ma’am” by Langston Hughes, “who you are today is a reflection of who you were in the past” is not a prominent theme. It’s fairly concealed, weaved in gracefully within text and dialogue, peeking out intermittently in a subtle, almost indistinct manner. This theme mostly makes reference to the protagonist, Luella Bates Washington Jones. --------After seeing Roger attempt to steal her purse in order to acquire a new pair of shoes, Luella doesn’t shriek , pursue or inform the police about his delinquency. Instead, she drags the startled boy back to her modest kitchenette to educate him about a fundamental lesson of life. She then proceeds to make him clean up, prepare food for him and comprehend the rationale of his thieving ways . Luella then commences to refer back to the times when she found herself in homologous situations and committed acts she now regretted. Throughout the context of the dialogue between her and Roger, it becomes apparent that Luella has previously struggled with her past. Luella does not appear to recoil at the prospect of having to converse with Roger o about her past but still seems to be reluctant to expand upon the events individually. As someone who loves psychology and neuroscience, I can infer/conclude that her past was what formed her persona, and fabricated those impregnable values within her. Luella is still a reflection of who she used to be. Her current character is a manifestation of lessons learned and acquired wisdom. Being a reflection doesn’t signify being a duplicate of your previous self, unaltered and unaffected by life. A reflection is always disparate, never entirely congruent. A mirror image will never be you, its an intricate likeness of you with changes: whether it be rearward text on your clothes, unanticipated weight-gain or a possibly better-looking, seemingly preoccupied doppelganger. Luella has learned from her mistakes, her faux-pas as a younger being and has been able to use this to develop into a well-formed, grounded character.
The Definitive Book of Body Language by Allan and Barbara Pease, is all about behavioral psychology and analysis of an individuals movement forms and expressions. Physical and facial movements demonstrate that you are a likeness of who you were in the past. The book says that we humans, can make and recognize approximately 250,000 facial expressions and gesticulations. People convey their thoughts and emotions by displaying them physically, deliberately or instinctively. Whether someone is 90 years old or 15 years, a down-mouth appearance does not correspond with happiness and indicates a mood or state of negativity. Body Language applies to everyone. Throughout one’s existence it is reckoned that his or her experiences form them into a distinctive person, an individual who has learned from his past and acquired understanding and awareness. That is wrong. We don’t all end in a finalized state of enlightenment: in fact some of us end up shaped into unbalanced, world-hating, cantankerous people. Either way, there is a rationale behind this all, and it’s not that life has caused us to metamorphose into new people. Looking at an individual and scrutinizing constant facial expressions and movements, you can tell that what they were like before.
For example, take two adults: accidental strangers that have never met encountered each other before. They are made to sit down facing each other and a platter of iced cupcakes is delivered to them. Now, all they have to do is talk and eat until all the cupcakes are finished. When sharing the cupcakes, a pampered, only-child will almost always reflexively keep his/her hand in short proximity to the cupcake platter, to make sure they have a faster, more immediate access to the cupcakes once they are done. Also, they often eat significantly more rapidly so as to make sure they can take hold of a second one as soon as possible. Someone who has grown up with siblings will generally take his/her time to eat and keep his/her hands at a respectful distance so as to allow liberty for whoever wants the cupcake next to take it. A lot of only-children have grown up being cosseted and highly-esteemed by family members because of their singularity. As well as that, they are habitually raised getting more for just them and in turn, develop a certain innate sense of self-interest: knowingly or inadvertently. Children growing up with numerous siblings acquire a sense of selflessness and develop an inherent sense of magnanimity: they have learned to be tolerant and wait and distribute things equally whilst single-children have not. No matter how we think we have changed over years, and how much we believe that we have grown into a different, changed person: behavioral and facial movements and patterns ascertain that this “new and altered” person we are now, is just a simple reflection of what we were in the past.
Both “Thank You Ma’am” by Langston Hughes and The Definitive Book of Body Language by Allan and Barbary Pease have proven to us that somewhere, you are a reflection of who you were. The fact that people eventually change is irrefutable, I mean : Of course we do! To say that life has turning points and state that we never change is an inconsistency. We adjust, we adapt, we amend and transform. But deep down, there is an intrinsic commonality between who we are now and who we used to be. To say we are the same but different is in itself: paradoxical, yet it seems appropriate for this context. We undergo minute alterations, whether it be thought process, belief, ideology or our habitual view of things yet we prevail as a sole individual inside: the one that we always were.
“we endure as different beings but the heart persists as is, and never will it falter.” - Dakshina Chetti (2010)
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