Short
stories, in my opinion, are like writing poetry. Novels are wonderful works of
literature but the author has the time to flush out and develop everything that
is desired. However, short stories require an author to limit themselves and
develop focused aspects. This is the true art of the short story: condensing a
large and complicated thought into a few pages of text. This means that there
is no room for extraneous words or thoughts and this makes the genre such a
delight to read. The short story
mentioned below is no exception.
“The Birthmark” by Nathaniel
Hawthorne is a short story that has captured my imagination and remains one of
my favorites. It is about a mad scientist’s wild pursuits to attain physical
beauty in his wife through extreme measures. However, originally I did not
enjoy the story. Initially I thought to myself “no one can be this ridiculously
and disquistingly vain about beauty, I cannot relate to this,” but I was quite
wrong. Almost immediately after
finishing the story and having this thought, the news stories and talk show
guests came out.
I heard
and read of various stories where black women were bleaching their skin in
order to become lighter in color, women were removing their own ribs and eating
tapeworms to be skinny, and even men were getting extensive plastic surgery in
order to achieve a personal vision of physical perfection. My new thought was that “we as a society have
truly gone mad for the power of beauty.” Hawthorne, even in his time, knew the
lengths people would go for beauty and that they would even die for its
attainment.
6 comments:
Did you ever hear of Sarah Burge. She is the woman who spent a ton of money trying to morph herself into looking like the human version of Barbie. She even purchased vouchers for her 7-year old daughter to have plastic surgery when she turns 18. Here is a link to an Anderson Cooper interview gone bad with her if you are interested (www.andersoncooper.com/2012/05/22/sarah-burge-human-barbie/)
I never read Hawthorne's "The Birthmark," but I will definitely be adding it to my list!
Dear Elizabeth,
Thank you for this link. This is just another example of how classic literature's values mirror our own modern-day issues. I am asked quite often why classic literature has value and is constantly read and this is just one way that it has merit in modern-day life. In fact, I see this distortion in the girls I work with since many are quite skinny but see themselves as fat. Thus, they go towards bulimia and anorexia for an answer to their societal-driven body issues.
I think your short story choice is very relevant today. I could rant on and on about the negative effects television, film, and print have on all of us, but I won't. You all know. I think this story could start quite the discussion.
Dear Bruce,
Funny that you mention that this story will start discussion because that is part of my plan for teaching this short story. This story provides an opportunity to look at the parallels between the two societal times in terms of values of beauty.
There's been talk about pairing short stories with novels, and after reading your post, it occurs to me that Hawthorne's "The Birthmark" would work powerfully with Toni Morrison's short novel "The Bluest Eye." Here's Amazon's description of the 160-page book:
"Pecola Breedlove, a young black girl, prays every day for beauty. Mocked by other children for the dark skin, curly hair, and brown eyes that set her apart, she yearns for normalcy, for the blond hair and blue eyes that she believes will allow her to finally fit in.Yet as her dream grows more fervent, her life slowly starts to disintegrate in the face of adversity and strife. A powerful examination of our obsession with beauty and conformity, Toni Morrison’s virtuosic first novel asks powerful questions about race, class, and gender with the subtlety and grace that have always characterized her writing."
Wow. This story sounds intense. I enjoy anything I've ever read by Hawthorne (bear in mind this is a very short list) but I'm looking forward to reading this story. I think this is a great counter to people who say old literature isn't relevant-- look at the world around us! It sounds like it mirrors this story ridiculously.
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