IB-WOLF

Names

My first name is Oliver. It's a pretty cool name, nice and short. Part of the reason I was named Oliver was after Saint Oliver Plunkett of Ireland. This connects some to my Irish heritage, but I do not feel that there is too much significance to it because I am not religious and I do not feel very Irish. However, my family felt that this heritage was important enough to pass down to the next generation. My middle name James has more value to me, because it was the name of my great-grandfather. I do not remember him very well, but I do remember visiting him and my great-grandma a couple of times in their small home in New York City. When we came, my great-grandma would bake a cake for us with special edible flowers that she made on top, and my great-grandpa had a book to give me; not a story, but a non-fictional book that would teach me to be fascinated in the natural world. One book that he gave me, The Animal Kingdom, contained more animals than I could have ever imagined existing. Another told me about stars, pulsars, black holes, alien worlds, and the unimaginable scale of the universe. The topics that I learned about through the books my great-grandfather gave me are ones that I still enjoy to this day. My name is one way that I can remember him and how he enriched my life.

Saint Oliver Plunkett

I am sort of named after him a little bit

Being an Individual & Part of a Whole

Being an individual is great. I get to think what I want to think, eat what I want to eat, make what I want to make, and do what I want to do. However, as a member of my family, a student in high school, and a part of society, I have certain responsibilities and expectations that I need to meet. Sometimes these pressures from society line up with my own desires. For example, I want to be able to learn about the world I live in, and society wants educated citizens to innovate and make smart decisions. Therefore, I attend class regularly and put in effort to my schoolwork. However, these expectations often conflict with what I might do on my own. Even though my robe is really quite comfortable, I can't walk around Millbrook's halls wearing it. It's inappropriate. It's distracting. And it's probably for the best. But I would probably wear it a lot if I could.

These societal pressures do not just affect me, of course. Everyone deals with them, although for some these pressures are not as simple to deal with as they are for me. I can wear just about anything besides my robe and not run into any trouble, but for girls in schools there are multiples pressures as to how they present themselves. With the dress code alone. girls have more rules and limits set on how much clothing must be covering their bodies, because obviously if student s could see too much of the shoulders or belly or legs of a girl, there would be unstoppable chaos. On top of this already maddening pressure, girls are also expected to make themselves look physically attractive. Straightening hair, putting on make-up, wearing shorts that are short enough to be stylish but long enough to satisfy prudish administrators, I cannot even imagine the frustration that such pressures from society must cause for half of the student body. Even imagining this situation now I am maddened and exhausted. I would think that after complying to such limiting pressures from outside groups, the small hint of individuality that I would have left would be comparable to the amount of juice left within a lemon after being squashed by a herd of one thousand elephants.

Although it can feel like all of the pressures from outside of the individual are less helpful than harmful, there are definitely plenty of cases where I feel that belonging to a group has enriched my life. The IB program alone, although limiting my free time substantially, has pressured me to create a video game, assemble a joke powerpoint for a teacher at Millbrook, and participate in a 5K to raise money for the Autism Society of North Carolina, all of which have either improved my life, the lives of others, or both. Although I am no longer a part of the MHS band program, being a part of it definitely improved my life. I got plenty of exercise, marching every day for months whether I wanted to or not. I was able to improve at playing the clarinet, even though we practiced far more often that I would have on my own. I even got to go to Carowinds with my best friends and had one of the most memorable days of my life, even though we never would have gone on that exciting of a trip if we weren't forced to. All of these aspects of the band program improved my life and made me a better person, although I know for a fact that without positive social pressure for me to do those things, I would not have done any of them nearly as often as I did. Even though I may have had different tastes in food, or political beliefs, or favorite comedians as an individual than other people in the band, that had nothing to do with coming together as a group in order to make music and have fun. My membership as part of the group gave me experiences and rewards that I as an individual could not have obtained on my own.

Sometimes it can be difficult to draw the line between who you are to yourself and who you are to others. You might not even fully be yourself with yourself. However, I think that making sure to at least try to be conscious of when you present yourself as someone you are not is important for knowing who you really are. Only by knowing that you are not your name can you show others who you really are.

Atwood, Wing Young Huie, and "Othering"

Throughout life, people belong to a plethora of group, each of which bonds its members in unique ways. These groups allow those within them to benefit from their contributions and have the support of others. However, under some circumstances these groups will compete with or be unfriendly with other groups, or they will more subtlety define themselves as different from that group. From football teams to universities to religions to genders, people are divided into groups that see themselves as unique from all others. This process of "othering" can be destructive because it leads to groups with less power being treated as lesser than the elite.

This photograph was taken by Wing Young Huie and can be found on his blog in his gallery on Chinese-ness. At a glance, it shows a Chinese woman holding up a chalkboard in a field somewhere in what seems to be rural China. On closer inspection, one sees that the chalkboard reads "Woman's Appearance, Man's Heart," which could be what the woman values herself or what she finds her culture to value highly. There is thick fog in the background, which could stem from the environment in the location or from heavy air pollution in the region. The woman's outfit is a dull gray that looks almost industrial, covering most of her skin besides her hands, neck, and face. These elements in Wing Young Huie's work allow us to gain a deeper sense of understanding for his topic.

Both Margaret Atwood and Wing Young Huie represent the process of othering in their work. One type of othering that they show is into gender and gender roles. In the photograph above, the phrase "Woman's Appearance, Man's Heart," has some heavy implications behind it. If this is to be seen as the basis of or a feature of a value system, this system places value in women based on their appearance rather than their contributions to society. It also uses differing goals for men and women as a means to seperate them from one another. Atwood illustrates the same process of othering when Offred walks by the Guardians into the market with Ofglen. The Guardians are in positions that use physical power while the Handmaids do chores for their household and must cover themselves to keep their beauty hidden from men. Both Huie and Atwood show how societies divide the genders from each other in a way that leads to a power imbalance between the two groups.

Another way that othering can take place is through different economic classes. In The Handmaid's Tale, powerful men get to have a Wife as well as Handmaids and Marthas, while less powerful men may only get a Wife and Marthas or even only an Econowife, who has to take on three jobs at once. However, women in the novel have the real economic disadvantage because they are denied education, literacy, and property. This leaves women as the lowest economic class of Gilead. In Wing Young Huie's photograph, there is smoke in the background that can likely be at least partially attributed to air pollution. The problem of air pollution in China stems from a lack of regulation in China's industry. This negligence of the Chinese government leaves workers in China with barely any power whatsoever over their lives, and hurt the Chinese population. However, China's pollution also speaks to global issues in developing countries, where the health of billions of people is sacrificed to the benefit of wealthy countries that see the citizens of these developing nations not as humans but as others. The illustration of othering that is achieved by Atwood and Huie challenges the reader to challenge their own beliefs about the world and consider how othering influences their own lives and actions.