Personal Response #2

Personal Response

By: Laramie

            In the poem “The Lather” it is clear that the boy in the poem feels a strong need to fulfill his obligations to his father. In my own personal life I undergo very similar feelings in my efforts to take responsibility for my own life and achieve my goals. I feel that the poem touches on a very real issue and something that many people encounter during certain times in their lives. This being the feeling or obligation to please those that we feel have authority or influence over us. I definitely feel a sense of pride and confidence when I do well on something and my parents are proud of me. But in order to well and achieve your goals it is necessary for you to take responsibility for yourself, and in some situations others.

            Humanities provides a perfect platform for students to learn an effective method of how to take control of yourself and others. When my own humanities career began I did not posses this particular skill, in my mind it was necessary for the assignment to be done my way, with almost no margin for error. I thought that by taking responsibility for myself, as well as my entire group in this influential manner, it could only lead to the optimum outcome. This technique worked for some time but the practice soon became exhausting and made me realize that by taking control I was not allowing my group to work to their full potential. It was in my grade twelve humanities class that I put this idea to fruition and forced myself to abolish the barrier that I had established, in order to allow myself to welcome the ideas of those in my team. It took some getting used to but I promptly realized that not only were my own ideas good but with the input of other group members we were able to formulate assignments that superior. By allowing people in my group to take responsibility for themselves and their own ideas, we were able to be more successful and acquire skills that would stick with us for life.

            Similar circumstances take place in the exert from the novel Snow falling on the Cedars, between Fujiko and her daughter Hatsue Imada. When Fujiko learns of her daughter’s relationship with a “hakujin” boy she immediately is outraged and takes matters into her own hands. She views her daughter as a young girl who is incapable of handling the matter in a way which she approves of. When Fujiko completes a written explanation of the situation she shows her writings to Hatsue.  Hatsue carefully examines the letter and proceeds to tell her mother what she is truly feeling. Hatsue explains that she is old enough to take responsibility for her own actions and she has thus realized that she and Ishmael Chambers should not continue their relationship. This expression from her daughter allows Fujiko to realize that she no longer has to take full responsibility for her daughter’s proceedings; she then make the decision to allow Hatsue to mail her own letter to Ishmael and handle the situation herself.

            We can take many things from the sources as well as our own personal experience. What I have learned is that in order to be successful you must learn to take responsibility for yourself as well as others, although you must do so in a way that does not hinder others abilities to do the same. We all crave the feeling of accomplishment and success but if we are not given the chance to find our own way of doing so, we may never achieve our true potential.