In todays world people begin passing judgements on others in their initial meeting . This is a bad habit because you can miss good characteristics of a person because of your perceived notions. The purpose of Lynda Barry's comic entitled "Today's Demon: Common Scents" is to demonstrate the importance of accepting others for who they are and their background. I believe that through Barry's comic she attempts to express that you should not look at people and judge them by the way they look or "smell". Barry wrote in different perspectives in hopes that readers would understand that we do make false assumptions of people. The underlying message in this comic is people in society making judgements on others without all the facts. I will show you in this paper how we as a society tend to judge others too quickly. Similarly, Zadie Smith's essay, "Speaking in Tongues," depicts how people need to be more understanding or "flexible" of the differences amongst people. When using the word flexible, Zadie Smith is referring to being adaptable to different things or responsive to change. We can all relate to a time in our childhood when we were mistreated or judged by what we wore or what we ate. I will explore why we, as a society, pass quick judgements based on material things instead of people's true character. Why are we are so quick to judge others and not take a look at ourselves first?
Both Barry and Smith use different modalities to convey a similar, yet important, message of being able to accept yourself and not judge others. Smith sees value in conversing with a variety of people which she refers to as "multi-voiced". With that in mind, we can better apply Barry's philosophy by not judging others. Barry uses symbolism throughout her comic. The key term "air freshener" is used frequently in this essay and most people can relate to this symbolism. The "air freshener" in this quote is a metaphor for not being able to disguise your true characteristics and who you really are. "I have always noticed the smell of other peoples houses, but when I was a kid I was fascinated by it. No two houses ever smelled alike, even if the people used the same air freshener" (Barry 52). Barry wants to show us that we are all different, and no one is the same, so do not judge people by their "scents". We are all human beings but we have unique differences that make us who we are.
Barry talks about how society can get so wrapped up in themselves and frequently try to obscure their differences at times. “I’ve never heard a single person ever say they loved the smell of air freshener and yet there are so many people who fill their homes with it” (Barry 59). I find the quotation to be quite brilliant. It perfectly demonstrates that people attempt to hide their "scents" with something that is fresher. Both Barry and Smith attempt to demonstrate that it is alright to live in your own skin. Smith takes a quote from President Obama, in which he is describing a "black" girl who happened to have multiple ethnic backgrounds. "I'm not black...I'm multiracial...Why should I have to choose between them?" (Smith 5). The lady the president describes appears to have trouble living in her own skin. She is looked at as simply a black girl, but she wanted to be seen for what she was really made of, which happened to be Italian and French and Native American. President Obama "ridiculed" this girl because he felt she should simply be happy in her skin. Obama, himself, has been extremely successful doing just that, taking pride in his origins and not hiding from any of it. I think the President perfectly symbolizes how Smith and Barry feel we should live with the aforementioned example.
Barry goes on to continue and support her fundamental message of the importance of accepting yourself for what you are with the following quote that I have found to be the most important statement in her comic, “Our house smelled like grease and cigs, like jade east and pork and dogs, like all the wild food my grandma boiled and fried. And if they could get that into a spray can, I’d buy it.” (Barry 60). This is where a character in Barry's comic finally accepts who she is and realizes that it is important to be who you are and accept yourself and others for who they are as well. We are have very unique kinds of "smells" and we should be proud of this.
Barry strategically organizes her essay as a comic, it is clear that Barry's context shows laughter with colorful pictures. It is important to see that this is a hard subject to get across but can be talked about in an easier manner like she has with her well put together comic. I feel that she chose to present in this way as a comic because many people can relate to it such as children, adults and really all generations. She uses a child in her comic to show that at a young age we can learn to understand others. With a very short and sweet message Barry really gets her point across with a simple easy to message.
Judging others is an issue that we all seem to have a problem with. Barry had this as an underlying message throughout her essay is that you should not judge people by their "smells". Barry states "You know, my darling, God has made every people! And every people makes ta-ee! Every ta-ee smells bad! Ask this lady does perfume come out of her pueet? N'ako, I don't think so darling! It is not God's way" (Barry 57). By this quote the grandmother who is speaking is explaining that God has made people in all different kinds of ways but they are all similar when you get down to the basics. An example, everybody sits on the toilet. Breaking down the similarities to this basic human need truly demonstrates in a simple way that everyone does the same things. The character is attempting to teach the concept of understanding and looking beyond the "smells".
The underlying theme in the two text we went over in class by Barry and Smith is the importance of getting to know someone before making assumptions of who they are. They use two unique modalities of getting their message across, Barry with a comic and Smith with a lecture. If Barry did not use a comic on this serious subject then she could have restricted her audience. She presents serious subject matter in a comical way which makes her into a creative writer. Barry discuss how we must look at ourselves closely and accept who we are and be proud of who we are. Barry explain that we are all very similar when you really look at the basics and discuss how we should accept others for who they are despite how unique they are. Barry makes a strong point that we must stop being critical for others based on their individuality and we must continue to accept who we are as individuals.
The famous "golden rule" states that we should treat others the way we would like to be treated. I can relate the golden rule to what Barry states in her comic with her symbolism.
The election of President Barack Obama is very promising for both of these points.
No comments:
Post a Comment