Cultural Relativism

Cultural Relativism is the idea that peoples beliefs and activities cannot be judged by someone outside of their culture because they do not have the same set of morals and codes.
I completely agree with the idea of Cultural Relativism. People often judge others outside of their culture because they act differently then them, which throws them and confuses them.  This however to them is not wrong at all which is what people have to learn to understand and accept.  There will never be a universal set of moral codes, so people must learn to accept and understands others.
A great example of this is Beowulf and Things Fall Apart.  Beowulf and Okonkwo were both seen as heroes in their culture, but in class nearly everyone had a hard time seeing them as heroes.  This is because we do not live in their culture therefore we do not live by the same moral codes. If we were to see them under our moral codes we would be right there saying they were heroes.  So people must come to the realization that others act differently and are seen differently.
People have been doing this since the beginning of time and will continue on for a long time to come.

Existentialism

I believe a topic that seemed significant for further discussion is the existentialist philosophy. In existentialism it is believed that people wish to make sense of life, but their desire for logic is futile because the true meaning of life is a meaning in which we cannot understand. As a result of our inability to comprehend this meaning, we become forced to define our own meanings, meaning the individual defines everything. Along with having no meaning, life has no value, since value is a concept that is human made, which means value is determined by the individuals existance. Existentialism also says that humans are the only species to define themselves through living, and because without life there is no meaning, people should fight for their lives. A final belief in existentialism is that culture forces members of society to participate in unnecessary obligations of society.
I think that the idea of existentialism is significant in the literature we are studying because in the theatre of the absurd play "Waiting for Godot" it is seen so prominently. It can be seen in that the play follows no logical plot, but instead defines every aspect of the play in the moment, with it not making any connection with other moments throughout the play.
Existentialism also seems to be significant to the idealology of people in society today. For example, I believe that most of our society yearns to make sense of life, yet without success. Another example is seen as value is determined by the individual in that monetary values are decided by people. A third example is that most people will fight for their lives, bmembers of society to ecause outside of life there is no meaning. It is also seen that culture forces members of society to participate in unnecessary social obligations, such as people attending parties when they would really rather spend that time elsewhere.

Oedipus Question 4

Question four of the Oedipus socratic seminar questions asked what effects were gained or loss from the scene of Oedipus stabbing his eyes out taking place behind the scenes. I think that having this scene take place behind the scenes provides a stronger shock value than having it be scene because it allows your imagination to produce the most malicious depiction possible. While scenes in today's media actually show these graphic images, I feel that the use of your imagination provides a greater effect.

I think question number eleven of the Invisible Man socratic seminar questions was an important question that should have been discussed further. The question is, discuss the following statement as it relates to the narrator's character and  discrimination as a whole, "How can he tell this to white men, I thought, when he knows they'll say that all Negroes do such things?" I feel that this quote generalizes discrimination as it was in the south during that time period in the narrator's eyes, which is similar to the views of many other black people then. This is seen when many of the influences in the beginning of the narrator's life expect him to simply conform to what the white man would "want" to see, regardless of  how they truly feel.
Even today, people conform to society allowing discrimination to continue to occur even after equal rights laws have been passed. Examples of this can be seen in the article "White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack" by Peggy McIntosh.
I feel that it is a disgrace to society that discrimination is still ocurring in the world today, in similar ways to as it was during the Invisible Man's generation.