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Soegijono 1 Daphne Soegijono Brian Garland Basic Composition 100 November 6, 2008
Title Human beings rarely show others how they feel directly. Instead, they would create other things that represent how they feel. Sometimes, things around a person will express how he/she feels. Therefore, things around us would change depending on how we feel and how we see things. In the essay “Dinosaur Dreams”, Jack Hitt explains to us that dinosaur and its discoveries can become representations of America’s historical evolutions. On the other hand, Fenton Johnson’s essay “Wedded to an Illusion” tells us about how our perception of marriage follows the evolution of the problems that we face in our lives. The evolution of dinosaur discoveries and marriage are representations of America itself. The national issues and historical events affect people’s perception of dinosaurs and concept of marriages. Every little thing around us can be seen as a representation of who we are or how we feel. From Hitt’s essay, we can learn that dinosaur discoveries are a representation of America itself. Hitt writes in his essay, “Dinosaurs are distinctly American, not only because our scholars have so often been at the forefront of fossil discoveries and paleontological theory but because the popular dinosaur is a wholly owned projection of the nationalist psyche of the United States” (Hitt 128). Hitt explains that how we approach fossil discoveries and paleontological theory depend on what is happening in our society. This is because what is going on around us affects how we feel, and how we feel also affects how we approach the things around us. We can quote Johnson’s essay for an example: “the early Catholic Church restricted divorce partly as a means of protecting women and children from easy abandonment” (Johnson 158). During that time, people feel that women and children need better protection. Marriages and divorces are obviously not their only problem at that moment, and there might be bigger ones. People will
Soegijono 2 look into anything concerning women and children to find things than can be changed for the better, and restricting divorce is one of the solutions. Because the things around us become representations of ourselves, they change according to how we feel and what we want. As human beings we have the control over almost everything around us. We have the ability to change things to be the way we want them to be. Throughout Johnson’s essay we learn that marriage has always been changing from generation to generation. That is because marriage represents who we are at that moment. “Marriage has always been an evolving institution, bent and shaped by the historical moment and the needs and demands of its participants” (Johnson 157). The concept of marriage is changing, depending on how our society wants it to be. We change marriage to how we want it to represent ourselves in society and to fit our perception of what marriage really means. The same can be said about how we see dinosaurs. “The early curators had to smash and whittle T. rex’s bones and then remove vertebrae to assemble him into that fighting posture. ‘There was more Barnum than science in those earliest displays,’ Horner says. ‘The curators realized it was a spectacle for the nation, and that’s why T. rex looked the way he did. It was what the country wanted to see’” (Hitt 130). According to Hitt’s essay, we picture dinosaurs the way we want to see them, instead of scientifically. It might not be how it really was but we are more satisfied when things agree with our perception. Therefore, how we picture things influence what they mean in our lives. Human beings tend to be stubborn about what they believe in and what they want to see. Everyday we learn something new, but we don’t believe in all of the new things we learn. Once we believe in something, some people tend to stick to it and believe that it is the truth, nothing else is. Johnson writes in his essay: “those who take as gospel the rules they have been taught rather than open their eyes to the reality in which they live, who witness love and yet deny its full expression” (Johnson 162). Johnson writes about people that he considers “overeducated”. We often think that we know better than we actually do. We feel that what we know and what we believe is always the truth. Therefore, we end up living under this illusion: a world that we create ourselves, ignoring the facts that are contradicting our beliefs. An example
Soegijono 3 can be drawn from Hitt’s essay. The majority of people see T. rex as this big and terrifying carnivore. Paleontologist Jack Horner found otherwise. While T. rex is still a carnivore, it is not a predator. It is not as terrifying and strong as people picture it to be. Even with all the facts that Horner found, people tend to stick with what they know. “Horner has nothing but critics, and they resist his logic with the willful stubbornness of biblical creationists weighing the merits of evolutionary theory. They will admit that T. ambulated like a monstrous sandpiper, but they insist he was still a predator, dammit” (Hitt 129). People want to see T. rex as the best predator in the dinosaur world. Even if that’s not the truth, we make ourselves believe that it is. We ignore the facts that say otherwise. We see things from our own perspectives, even if there are other perspectives that have more truth. Because we change things to how we want them to be, they become a part of us. Our feelings and thoughts affect our decisions. In a way, everything that we touch has a sense of our identity in them. The things around us change following the changes in ourselves, so they also become a part of our identity. America has always been the world’s superpower as well as the leading country in paleontology and dinosaur discoveries. “But there was another side of this revival. At the time, America’s status as superpower, as well as keeper of dinosaurs, was beginning to be challenged by China” (Hitt 137). Dinosaur has always been a part of Americans. This is because everything leading to their discovery and emergence in pop culture has always started in America. To most people, dinosaur is America’s identity. This identity effect goes both ways, too. If dinosaur identifies America, people give marriage its identity. Johnson writes in his essay that the concept of marriage is identified by anyone who is a part of it. “Marriage is a union between a man and a woman because that is how most people define the word, however unjust this may be for same-gender couples who wish to avail themselves of its rights” (Johnson 160). Perhaps now we can see more homosexuals who fight for their equality of rights as heterosexuals. Still, most people will identify marriage as something that is between a man and a woman. If you are asked to think about a wedding, you will see a groom – a man in a nice tuxedo – and a bride – a woman in a white gown. This is the stereotype of a marriage; a man and a
Soegijono 4 woman who want to build a family together. We identify things as we what we want them to represent. On the other hand, the same things become a part of our identity because they represent us. Since we identify the things around us, and they identify us, everything around us becomes a part of us. Marriage has become a part of our life and our culture. Johnson writes in his essay, that according to most people marriage is the foundation of a family. “With marriage as its cornerstone, this idealized unit forms the foundation for virtually all American legislation concerning the family” (Johnson 158). Our society sees that to become a family, two people, male and female, have to be married. That is the base of a family. In a way, marriage is seen to be a part of our culture, because marriage builds a family, and families build our society. Similarly, in Hitt’s essay we can find that dinosaurs are also still a part of our lives, even though they became extinct millions of years ago. “They have done a lot of heavy lifting, culturewise. Besides in children’s narratives (where dinosaurs still rule the world), they have served as political totems, deranged kitsch, icons of domesticated terror, cultural mules for Darwin’s (still) troubling theory, and environmental Cassandras resurrected to act out her famous final words, ‘I will endure to die’” (Hitt 128). As Hitt explains throughout his essay, dinosaurs have become a part of our lives. It is a part of America’s pop culture, representing its historical events. It is also an example of Darwin’s theory on evolution.
Title Human beings rarely show others how they feel directly. Instead, they would create other things that represent how they feel. Sometimes, things around a person will express how he/she feels. Therefore, things around us would change depending on how we feel and how we see things. In the essay “Dinosaur Dreams”, Jack Hitt explains to us that dinosaur and its discoveries can become representations of America’s historical evolutions. On the other hand, Fenton Johnson’s essay “Wedded to an Illusion” tells us about how our perception of marriage follows the evolution of the problems that we face in our lives. The evolution of dinosaur discoveries and marriage are representations of America itself. The national issues and historical events affect people’s perception of dinosaurs and concept of marriages. Every little thing around us can be seen as a representation of who we are or how we feel. From Hitt’s essay, we can learn that dinosaur discoveries are a representation of America itself. Hitt writes in his essay, “Dinosaurs are distinctly American, not only because our scholars have so often been at the forefront of fossil discoveries and paleontological theory but because the popular dinosaur is a wholly owned projection of the nationalist psyche of the United States” (Hitt 128). Hitt explains that how we approach fossil discoveries and paleontological theory depend on what is happening in our society. This is because what is going on around us affects how we feel, and how we feel also affects how we approach the things around us. We can quote Johnson’s essay for an example: “the early Catholic Church restricted divorce partly as a means of protecting women and children from easy abandonment” (Johnson 158). During that time, people feel that women and children need better protection. Marriages and divorces are obviously not their only problem at that moment, and there might be bigger ones. People will
Soegijono 2 look into anything concerning women and children to find things than can be changed for the better, and restricting divorce is one of the solutions. Because the things around us become representations of ourselves, they change according to how we feel and what we want. As human beings we have the control over almost everything around us. We have the ability to change things to be the way we want them to be. Throughout Johnson’s essay we learn that marriage has always been changing from generation to generation. That is because marriage represents who we are at that moment. “Marriage has always been an evolving institution, bent and shaped by the historical moment and the needs and demands of its participants” (Johnson 157). The concept of marriage is changing, depending on how our society wants it to be. We change marriage to how we want it to represent ourselves in society and to fit our perception of what marriage really means. The same can be said about how we see dinosaurs. “The early curators had to smash and whittle T. rex’s bones and then remove vertebrae to assemble him into that fighting posture. ‘There was more Barnum than science in those earliest displays,’ Horner says. ‘The curators realized it was a spectacle for the nation, and that’s why T. rex looked the way he did. It was what the country wanted to see’” (Hitt 130). According to Hitt’s essay, we picture dinosaurs the way we want to see them, instead of scientifically. It might not be how it really was but we are more satisfied when things agree with our perception. Therefore, how we picture things influence what they mean in our lives. Human beings tend to be stubborn about what they believe in and what they want to see. Everyday we learn something new, but we don’t believe in all of the new things we learn. Once we believe in something, some people tend to stick to it and believe that it is the truth, nothing else is. Johnson writes in his essay: “those who take as gospel the rules they have been taught rather than open their eyes to the reality in which they live, who witness love and yet deny its full expression” (Johnson 162). Johnson writes about people that he considers “overeducated”. We often think that we know better than we actually do. We feel that what we know and what we believe is always the truth. Therefore, we end up living under this illusion: a world that we create ourselves, ignoring the facts that are contradicting our beliefs. An example
Soegijono 3 can be drawn from Hitt’s essay. The majority of people see T. rex as this big and terrifying carnivore. Paleontologist Jack Horner found otherwise. While T. rex is still a carnivore, it is not a predator. It is not as terrifying and strong as people picture it to be. Even with all the facts that Horner found, people tend to stick with what they know. “Horner has nothing but critics, and they resist his logic with the willful stubbornness of biblical creationists weighing the merits of evolutionary theory. They will admit that T. ambulated like a monstrous sandpiper, but they insist he was still a predator, dammit” (Hitt 129). People want to see T. rex as the best predator in the dinosaur world. Even if that’s not the truth, we make ourselves believe that it is. We ignore the facts that say otherwise. We see things from our own perspectives, even if there are other perspectives that have more truth. Because we change things to how we want them to be, they become a part of us. Our feelings and thoughts affect our decisions. In a way, everything that we touch has a sense of our identity in them. The things around us change following the changes in ourselves, so they also become a part of our identity. America has always been the world’s superpower as well as the leading country in paleontology and dinosaur discoveries. “But there was another side of this revival. At the time, America’s status as superpower, as well as keeper of dinosaurs, was beginning to be challenged by China” (Hitt 137). Dinosaur has always been a part of Americans. This is because everything leading to their discovery and emergence in pop culture has always started in America. To most people, dinosaur is America’s identity. This identity effect goes both ways, too. If dinosaur identifies America, people give marriage its identity. Johnson writes in his essay that the concept of marriage is identified by anyone who is a part of it. “Marriage is a union between a man and a woman because that is how most people define the word, however unjust this may be for same-gender couples who wish to avail themselves of its rights” (Johnson 160). Perhaps now we can see more homosexuals who fight for their equality of rights as heterosexuals. Still, most people will identify marriage as something that is between a man and a woman. If you are asked to think about a wedding, you will see a groom – a man in a nice tuxedo – and a bride – a woman in a white gown. This is the stereotype of a marriage; a man and a
Soegijono 4 woman who want to build a family together. We identify things as we what we want them to represent. On the other hand, the same things become a part of our identity because they represent us. Since we identify the things around us, and they identify us, everything around us becomes a part of us. Marriage has become a part of our life and our culture. Johnson writes in his essay, that according to most people marriage is the foundation of a family. “With marriage as its cornerstone, this idealized unit forms the foundation for virtually all American legislation concerning the family” (Johnson 158). Our society sees that to become a family, two people, male and female, have to be married. That is the base of a family. In a way, marriage is seen to be a part of our culture, because marriage builds a family, and families build our society. Similarly, in Hitt’s essay we can find that dinosaurs are also still a part of our lives, even though they became extinct millions of years ago. “They have done a lot of heavy lifting, culturewise. Besides in children’s narratives (where dinosaurs still rule the world), they have served as political totems, deranged kitsch, icons of domesticated terror, cultural mules for Darwin’s (still) troubling theory, and environmental Cassandras resurrected to act out her famous final words, ‘I will endure to die’” (Hitt 128). As Hitt explains throughout his essay, dinosaurs have become a part of our lives. It is a part of America’s pop culture, representing its historical events. It is also an example of Darwin’s theory on evolution.
