Stupid Americans!: Wherein the Stereotype of the American Idiot Shall Be Either Proved, Disproved, or Merely Contemplated Upon

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Rachel Best

Ms. J. Robinson

AP Language and Composition

12 April, 2008

Stupid Americans! : Wherein the Stereotype of the American Idiot Shall Be Either Proved, Disproved, or Merely Contemplated Upon

“Pretend that you’re Canadian.”  I heard this phrase so many times during my trip to France this summer that it became a mantra.  Why, you may ask, should an American teenager, not on the run from the law, nor wanted by a dangerous crime syndicate, be traveling throughout Europe pretending to be Canadian?  Aside from geographical and political differences, not to mention the way their policemen get around, Canada and the United States are not particularly different.  Canadians and Americans buy their clothes from the same retailers, watch the same television shows, and even have similar currencies (“Canada”).  Americans are no more shallow than Canadians, so why is it that I was told to subtly drop around phrases such as “eh?” or “aboot the hoose”?

The difference between a Canadian and an American is that the stereotype of the “American idiot” is prevalent across the globe (“American Stereotypes”).  While there are just as many Canadian idiots as there are Americans, Canadians do not face this issue when traveling abroad.  Canadians, with their Mounties and their bacon/ham are able to (nearly) freely traverse the globe, unfettered by any cultural stereotypes.  Of course, as many will say, stereotypes exist for a reason, and I will not disagree with that.  There are indeed many Americans who come across as rude, pushy, and inconsiderate, but that does

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not mean that all, or even most are like that.  In fact, in most instances, it does seem to be more of a cultural misunderstanding than any actual rudeness on the part of the offender.

            I have seen many large, loud American groups, taking up sidewalks, gaping at the place where the Sun King’s head was so ceremoniously separated from his body, but I have seen just as many groups like these from all corners of the Earth (“American Stereotypes”).  Some Americans have respect for the country they visit.  Some don’t.  Some Japanese people have respect for the country they visit.  Some don’t.  Some citizens have respect for the people visiting their country.  Many don’t.  A large number of these stereotypes actually seems to stem from a country’s desire not to be blamed.  No country wishes to be seen as rude, and so they loudly proclaim that another country is far worse.  It doesn’t matter to me how these stereotypes came about, because they are still hurtful and insulting.

At the beginning of our journey, we stayed in a fancy international hotel, and flipped through some of the French-language picture books in the children’s area.  Imagine our surprise and horror upon discovering that one of the books was about Americans.  And not just any Americans: spherical Americans!  Indeed, every American portrayed in the book was short, blonde-haired, pale-skinned, blue-eyed, and spherical.  They were shown on moving sidewalks leading into McDonalds’, and having to climb ladders to get in the driver’s seat of their Hummer.  Of course, the pure, pristine, and sterile French visitors looked on in shock.  We were not merely angry that this horrible piece of propaganda was being displayed in such an international hotel, but that it was

 

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marketed toward children.  There was obviously a market for it, or else it would not have been printed in the first place.

Although the way other nations encourage this stereotype of Americans seems atrocious, the worst enforcers of all are other Americans.  Not, however, those stereotyped, but those who are “different.”  Everyone, it seems, is trying to separate himself or herself from the rest of the country.  “Oh, yes, they are idiots, but I’m different.”  People seem determined to prove that they are not idiots by pointing out that they are able to tell the brainless from the brained: “Look, I am so special that I can point of the idiots out for you right now!  Oh, we, the extremely vocal minority, are so oppressed by our obese fellow man.”  Instead of trying to correct the cultural faux pas of their brothers and sisters, they distance themselves from them, and laugh at them, along with the rest of the world.

The main issue, as I have said previously, is communication.  In the American culture, we have been raised to posses certain values: rugged individualism, a strong work ethic, a belief that anyone can better themselves, directness, equality, and the desire to expand.  All of these values stem from occurrences in our past, and all have their virtues.  They can, however, be perceived as insulting when seen from the contrasting viewpoint of another culture.  Our belief in equality seems abominably rude while in Japan, where they believe that if you encounter your better, you must show him or her the respect deserved.  The informality of Americans is abrasive when contrasted with the quiet formality of the Swiss.  The entire world, certainly not excluding the United States,

 

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needs to educate itself on other cultures; thus would these stereotypes be avoided (“Practical Planet”).

I have been traveling since the month after I was born, and, on my journeys, I have encountered many different people, cultures, and countries.  Most of the people who I met were polite and friendly, and everyone has something to share.  Luckily for us Americans, most people you will come across as you travel are as I have described: polite, congenial, and friendly.  Almost all seem to understand that a stereotype is just that: a broad, general picture of a much larger group.  They understand that they don’t want to be folded into a cliché, and you probably don’t either.  As long as you do your best to respect other people, you have no reason to worry about what they might think of you.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Works Cited

Dodson, Mike.  “Confronting stereotypes of American culture: American Stereotypes.” 2006. College Publisher. 11 April 2008. http://media.www.uwtledger.com/media/storage/paper642/news/2005/11/03/Opinion/Confronting.Stereotypes.Of.Culture.American.Stereotypes-1113101.shtml.

Hooliator. “American Stereotypes.” 2006. 11 April 2008. http://www.hooliator.net/yanks/dumyanks01.html.

Hutchison, Tania. “Canada eh?.” 2002. 11 April 2008. http://www3.sympatico.ca/taniah/Canada/.

Wederspahn, Gary M. “Practical Planet: Avoiding the ‘Ugly American’ Stereotype.” 11 April 2008. http://www.talesmag.com/tales/practical/ugly_american.shtml. 

 

 

 

She Parts the Crowd Like the Sea for Israel: A Comparison of The Crucible and High School

The Benediction of a Serpent

Love Song – Revision

Ms. Robinson said that for the “revision” portion, we could use a poem that we have written.  Here I have the first and second drafts.  When I wrote the first one, I wasn’t really happy with it, exactly, or not as happy as I could be.  However, I never revise my “rhyming poems,” because that could mess up the flow.  Here, I decided to try it, and I really liked it.  It helped me to look at my work critically, and to make changes on my own.  I was able to take the poem in a slightly different direction, too.  I have learned to never be content with a piece of writing that I’m not wholly satisfied with.  I have also resolved to, in the future, revise many more of my poems.  I think that it helps me to be more creative.

Love Song

Why would I have loved a one as you?

You are as bright and shining as a star. 

You seem to suck the light from those nearby,

And yet you magnify just what they are.

But still, I always was content to be

Your satellite, and yearn for you and light.

It seems I never thought to realize

That I would be the one left in the night.

The other stars still pale in sight of you –

The planets are less glorious by far. 

I never could have dreamed for me the pain

That comes from loving such a brilliant star.

So blinded was I from your golden light,

That I could find my way no more, it seems.

I  cannot love you now in waking life,

But I will always love you in my dreams

 

Love Song

How could I have loved a one like you?

You are as bright and shining as a star. 

You seem to suck the light from those nearby,

But still you magnify the things they are.

I thought that I would be content to be

Your satellite, and yearn for you and light,

But I have realized, my love, you see,

That I have been the one left in the night.

You cannot mean to be just what you are,

I cannot mean to love someone like you.

But still I’m left alone – you are the sun.

I cannot compare – the planets too

Still writhe in envy of your glorious light.

The other stars cannot compare, it seems.

I cannot love you now in waking life,

But I will always love you in my dreams.

He/She Doesn’t Understand Me: Differences Between the Male and Female Brain

Rachel Best

Mrs. Robinson’s Class

Honors English III

5 Dec 2007

He/She Doesn’t Understand Me:

Differences Between the Male and Female Brain

How many times have you heard someone say that “men are from Mars, and women are from Venus,” or something else to that effect?  You have, I’m sure, heard a wife complain that her husband never talks about his feelings.  Most likely, you’ve also heard the husband say that he has nothing to talk about, or that his wife talks too much.  It’s possible that you’ve wondered why it seems that there are so many male scientists and construction workers, and so many female teachers and salespeople.  It could be that society is simply sexist, or it could be that males and females are, in general, programmed to have different specialties.  Is there a physical difference between the male and female brain?  If there is, does it actually make a difference?  Does it affect the way they think, or what jobs they will pursue?  Most important of all, how does this affect the way they interact with each other?

Many scientists will say that there are too many exceptions to firmly say that there is a “female type” brain, or a “male type” brain.  However, most in the profession will insist that there is a definitive line separating the two, with, of course, exceptions.  I have had many people take the BBC brain-type exam, and most of them have come up with a type mirroring their gender.  Surprisingly to myself, I have a male-type brain.  There are, though, far too many females with “female brains” and males with “male brains” for it to be merely a coincidence.  Therefore, despite evidence both supporting and detracting from my opinion, I firmly support the claim that the physical and genetic differences between female and male brains affect the thoughts and actions of their possessors. 

To begin with, there is one very tiny difference between the two genders – the 23^{rd chromosome pair.  The first 22 pairs are exactly the same, but when you come to the 23rd pair, women receive two X’s, while men receive one Y and one X chromosome.  It is with this microscopic portion of a person’s genes that the differences begin.  This determines which sex hormones a person will receive: testosterone for males and estrogen for females.  As said in the article “Gender Differences are Real,” “brain differences are not a matter of superiority or inferiority, but of specialization (York).”  There are 4% more brain cells in the average male brain than there are in the average female brain, and there are about 100 grams more brain matter in the male brain.  However, female brains have more dendritic connections between their brain cells, as well as a larger corpus collosum, which means that they are able to transfer and process information faster than men. It is interesting -and unsurprising- to note that women are actually “more in touch with their feelings” than men are.  They have a larger deep limbic brain, which affects their feelings, and their ability to express them.  It makes it easier for women to forge bonds with other beings in relation to men (Baron-Cohen).  This seems to imply that it is not merely that the world is biased toward men that places women as primary caregivers, but a genetic predisposition.  Most women are better equipped to read emotions and bond with people in general and small children in particular, and are thus the best choice to care for the young of a species.  This is not to say, of course, that society is not pre-disposed toward men (as these genetic discoveries were previously unknown), but that perhaps in this case, sexism has had an unexpected benefit for human children.  (Remember that I do not in any way condone either gender believing in its superiority.)Not only does the larger deep limbic brain make women better at communicating feelings, it also affects their susceptibility to psychological disorders such as depression.  Significantly, women are most likely to be besieged by oppression during times when their minds are being bathed in estrogen, the female hormone – puberty, menopause, the onset of the menstrual cycle, and after giving birth.  The increase in deep limbic brain size also seems to affect the violence of the respective genders: men, being less apt at communicating their feelings, are more likely to “fight it out,” or commit suicide.  Women are more likely to attempt to “talk out” their problems, and although they attempt to commit suicide three times more often than men, they succeed three times less often.  Interestingly enough, the choice form of suicide for women is the nonviolent overdose of pills, while men more often shoot or hang themselves.  Men are less able to form bonds which would keep them tied to life, as they say, and so may believe they have “less to live for.”} 

Women are more like to verbalize their feelings, but men have other ways of dealing with them.  A woman prefers to hash and rehash a situation, looking at it in every possible light, while a man prefers to internalize his feelings, and if possible, forget about the problem.  When children are younger, little girls are more likely to use words apologize to each other, while little boys prefer to fight over something, and then later carry on as if it never happened.  This is also a prime example of the way married couples attempt to deal with their problems, and why they often fail – they don’t attempt to take the time to work something out the way the other person might prefer.  Men and women might try to solve their problems in different ways, but they are both equally capable of overlooking the other gender’s point of view!

Men and women also use different parts of their brains at different times.  A man primarily uses his left brain for speaking and performing simple tasks; a woman is capable of using both sides of her brain in these activities.  Therefore, Baron-Cohen says, if a man had a stroke affecting the left side of his brain, he would not be able to speak.  On the other hand, if a woman had a stroke affecting the left side of her brain, she would eventually be able to speak almost as she normally did, because she had been accustomed to using her right brain as well.

I am sure you have heard a woman somewhere complain that men can’t seem to do more than one thing at once – this is actually true!  While there are exceptions, the average man’s mind is really not equipped to focus on more than one action at once.  Men are born as “single-minded” creatures, who generally focus all of their attention on one set goal.  Women, on the other hand, being ambidextriously able to switch back and forth between halves of their brain, are better able to multi-task.  Their brains are equipped to divide their attentions between tasks, and they are better able to think in layer, with several “trains of thought” going at once.

The predominate side of their brain also affects the ways that men and women learn, and what areas they typically excel in.  It is not coincidence that you see so many female English majors, or male mathematics majors.  The female-type mind typically excels in language and memorization; the male-type mind typically excels in systemizing and assembly.  This affects such everyday behavior as direction-giving: a man, when giving guidance, is more likely to give them in relation to the direction and distance in which you are traveling, while a women is more likely to give it in relation to a landmark you will pass along the way. 

A male is typically better at solving puzzles, mazes, and complex math problems than a woman is; while this does relate to the society in which a child is brought up, it also has a lot to do with genetics and the individual.  Consequently, though there are many women who excel in this area, men are typically better at systemizing information, while women are better at empathizing with other people (Baron-Cohen).  Some scientists prefer to say that there are three types of brains – empathetic, E, systemizing, S, and balanced, B – rather than say that there are only male and female brains.  I would have to concur that this would be more accurate, but, for the sake of fluidity in my report, I will continue to call them male and female brains. 

The interesting bit about my being diagnosed as having a “male” or “type-S” brain is that I scored above both male and female averages for all activities, and so, I believe, should have had a “balanced” brain.  I also prefer “type-E” activities, such as singing, theater, dance, verbal exercises, and English class more than I enjoy “type-S” activities, such as reconstructing machinery, and solving math problems.  I will have to conclude that there is either a bug in the quiz which is not too unlikely, or there was more weight placed on certain exercises than others when constructing my brain profile.

Something I did not expect to come across in my research was the affect of hormones on the development of the brain.  For example, male humans born with a disorder causing them to produce less testosterone – the male hormone – are generally not as skilled at systemizing as their fully testosteroned counterparts.  A male born with androgen insensitivity syndrome (AIS), is also less like to be as apt at systemizing, construction, or problem solving.  Testosterone is an androgen.  Female mice, however, who were injected with testosterone, solved and actually learned mazes more quickly than regular female mice, with normal amounts of male and female hormones in their bodies (Baron-Cohen).  This seems to suggest that not only does the gender-type of brain you have affect you, your hormones, especially the amount that reach your brain, affect your mental development, and thus affect you.

It seems that, when it comes to male and female brains, and the differences lying therein, the two sexes will just have to “understand they won’t understand,” but at least make an effort.  Although you will find it hard to think like a brain type you are not, you will hopefully be able to place yourself in another person’s shoes, at least for a little while.  Reviewing all of my data, I am led to believe that there is a substantial difference between the brains of men and women.  Although many men and women do not have the brain type cohesive with their gender, this does not make them and more “masculine” or “feminine.”  It also does not make the hypotheses of myself and many scientists incorrect, relating to the affect a person’s brain has on his or her behavior.  With men and women being so different, I believe that it is a good thing for us to recognize and celebrate these differences, even if we do get exasperated sometimes.

Welcome to Life, Small Baby

For our, I believe, first journal entries, Ms. Robinson gave us each a slip of paper, and told us to do what it said.  Mine said that my sister had just had a baby, and to write the first thing I tell him or her.  This is the result of that assignment.  (I remember that Sarah Grenier’s was really good!)  I actually like mine much more than I had at first suspected, and something like this is going to happen to me someday! Ah…  how nice.  I basically just told the baby things about me and my family, and what to expect growing up with us,  here it is!

Welcome to Life, Small Baby

      Hello, small baby.  Did you know that you are beautiful?  You are a part of my sister, and so, a part of me.  I know your life’s story so far, and so, to make it fair, I will tell you about me. 

      Baby, I love to sing, and whenever you want them, I will sing you lullabyes.  Did you know that your mommy is my little sister?  I have two others besides her, so you have two more aunts to meet!

      I love the water, too.  I will teach you to swim so we can be safe as we float along together.  I am a terrible artist, baby, so I hope you are fabulous and can give me some lessons!  I did pretty well in school, so I can help you someday, if you ever need it. 

      I grew up with your mommy, so I know how difficult she can be.  If you ever need someone to spoil you and take you shopping, and talk about how unfair she is, just call me.  But don’t forget: she’s my sister, and I love her, so I won’t really be agreeing when we talk about her awfulness.

     I will always take care of you, small baby, so don’t forget it.  I love you!

The Brain and Copy-Changing

One day in class, Ms. Robinson put a bunch of sentences on the board, and told us to copy-change them.  As I was working on my research project on the brain, most of the sentences’ subjects reflect that.  I didn’t take down the precise sentences that we copy-changed, but I have the ones that I wrote.  Some of them seem really weird, even to me (and I wrote them!), so it’s perfectly acceptable if you don’t understand what I’m talking about.  Copy-changing is taking an existing piece of work and changing it in some way, like by using a different subject, but keeping the structure either similar or the same (basically).

The Brain and Copy-Changing

The brain chuckled to itself and thought away, quickly as a moose, about the barren wasteland of the male mind, where women dare not tread.

Brains are temporary, but thoughts are forever.

Even though many minds and many brilliant people have fallen or may fall into the grasp of apathy and all the odious apparatus of boredom, we shall not flag or fail.

It began around 1920, by the Thames River, near London, in what was and is England.

He spent hours in the lab playing with the brain, studying the synapses and working one experiment after another.

Intelligence is not what you know; it is what you do with what you know.

Dove Chocolate: Innocent Candy Company or Sinister Cult?

This is, by far, the strangest thing I’ve written until now. I haven’t written anything quite so strange until now, but I don’t know the strangeness of what I may write in the future, so I can’t promise that something like this won’t happen again. I think the prompt was actually simply a free write, but to use as many vocabulary words as possible, and at least five. We also had to use parallelism. (I have underlined these.) We were eating chocolates in class (yes, we were allowed), and the fortune on my chocolate was “Keep the promises you make to yourself.” Our teacher’s chocolate said “Go to your special place.” Upon further contemplation, I realized that these were actually rather menacing messages, and thus was born my journal entry.

Dove Chocolate: Innocent Candy Company, or Sinister Cult?

“Keep the promises you make to yourself,” my chocolate said. Alright, I will. But which promise? Scrutinize them. Are they good? Are they right? Are they helpful to others? Are they laudable? Are they probable? Are they even possible?The brevity of the statement “keep the promises you make to yourself” seems commendable, but is actually rather evasive. Let me embellish on that thought. It at first seems to evoke images of a woman sticking to her diet, but, as it is a chocolate company, they cannot mean that. Following this line of logic, it is obviously something far more… sinister.

Let me reiterate that statement so a novice like yourself can understand: Dove chocolate is simply the cover for a cult! When Ms. Robinson’s chocolate said to “go to your special place,” it actually meant “go to the cult headquarters so we can perform human sacrifices and imbibe blood and other noxious liquids!” I know, shocking, isn’t it? Looked at in this light, “keep the promises you made to yourself obviously means “keep the promises you made to us.”

This so-called “chocolate company” must really be some kind of affluent, mafia-like cult. If you never hear from me again, you know why.

Zipping

This was written in relation to a prompt that required imagery.  I forgot what kind, but maybe similes, or sensory imagery.  No, wait!  It is from the prompt that told us to take one word and use it as another part of speech, such as a noun for a verb, or an adjective for a noun.  (This is known in scholarly circles as “anthimeria.”)  This entry is based on one of the times I went on the “canopy swing” in Costa Rica.  It’s a bit like a zip line, and it goes through the rain forest. 

 Zipping

           Dangling over the juicy green rainforest, I think I see what “happy” looks like.  If the earth, one day, started singing, with a universal symphonic orchestra behind, the rhythms would be the trees, the harmonies the rain, and the individual notes the monkeys and birds.  The trees giraffe themselves up, trying to reach my heels, but I good-naturedly zip away.  The clear blue ocean stretches away from me, diamonded by the sunlight shining down.  Mountains are also in the distance, like great bears lumped up under green blankets.  The wind laughs in my face, and I laugh back – we are two of a kind.  It’s not hard to see why this is such a popular attraction.  I could almost lose myself in the rainforest, until I zip! zip! zip! and see the platform with my family waiting for me. 

There is No Me: Catherine Barkley

Rachel Best

Ms. Robinson

Honors English III

November 15, 2007

There is No Me: Catherine Barkley           

            Perhaps because he was slighted by his fiancée earlier in his life, Ernest Hemingway’s book A Farewell to Arms has a marked lack of strong

female characters. The most obviously weak female is Catherine Barkley, the protagonist’s love interest. Hemingway uses Catherine as a

symbol for the modern, “independent” woman, and how she loses her sense of self in a relationship by showing how Catherine acts in relation to

other characters and occurrences.  Catherine should be a strong character, but, like many women today, her need for love drives her to

suppress her individuality in order to please Frederic Henry, her lover.

            Given her background and lifestyle, Catherine Barkley should be a character who stands on her own and doesn’t need to hide behind others.  She is, as Rinaldi says, a “beautiful English girl,” and one of the nurses on the Italian front during World War I (13). She seems to have her own place in the nurses’ hierarchy, and she has even made a few friends, like Helen Ferguson, “her sweet Fergy” (248).  Catherine left her own family back in England to take care of the soldiers injured on the front lines of battle. She is a lone female, in a country where she does not speak the language. It would be conceivable for her to be nervous, having no one familiar in the entire country, but she has completely adapted to her circumstances. Where most women, to help the war effort, would have grown gardens, bought war bonds, sewn clothes for the soldiers, or even worked in factories, she completely uprooted herself, and went to Italy. This is not the action of someone who is weak and only worries about the opinions of other people, so, given this background, her later actions are extremely surprising.

            Throughout the book, there are examples of Catherine suppressing her own desires and her own individuality to please Henry. During their second meeting, Henry tries to kiss her, and although she at first slaps him back, she later says to him, “You are a dear. I’d be glad to kiss you if you don’t mind.” (27). Instead of sticking to what she originally wanted, she changes her own feelings to please Henry.  Although she knows that he is often with other girls and army prostitutes, and that he does not really love her, she completely disregards this. She begs him to “keep on lying” to her (105). She would rather him tell her a lie than hear the unpleasant truth. Not too long after, she tells him, “I want what you want. There isn’t any me any more. Just what you want.” (106). Now, not only does she disregard her desires in favor of his, she says that she has no desires whatsoever, and she only feels the things he feels, and wants what he wants. Even as she lays dying, she reassures Henry, calling him a “poor darling,” and telling him that she will “come to stay with him nights.” (331). Even dying she is not worried for herself – she has been completely eclipsed by her relationship with Henry.

            It is difficult to understand what could induce Catherine to lose her independence and sense of self so completely.  There are, in fact, only two significant reasons for this drastic change in personality.  The first is that, as a younger woman, she had a fiancée who “was killed in the Somme” (18). She wouldn’t marry him before he left, and wanted to wait until after the war. Catherine tells Henry that she was “a fool not to.  I could have given him that anyway […] He could have had it all.  He could have had anything he wanted if I would have known.  I would have married him or anything.  I know all about it now.  But then he wanted to go to war and I didn’t know” (19).  She is afraid that by asserting herself, she lost the man she loved.  She thinks that if she had just married him, and just done whatever he wanted, he would still be alive, and they would be married and happy. Her guilt over supposedly having something to do with his death contributes to her later doing whatever she can to please Henry, her new lover, and keep him in her life.

Like many women at the time of World War I, Catherine probably thinks that she needs a man in her life to love her.  “I’ll love you in the rain and in the snow and in the hail…  I’ll love you no matter how it is,” she tells Henry (126).  She believes that if she tries to be her own person she won’t be pleasing Henry, and he will leave her.  For example, while at the race track she constantly checks to see that Henry is pleased and happy, telling him, “Don’t let me spoil your fun, darling.  I’ll go back whenever you want” (132).  She has lost her independence so much by the time A Farewell to Arms begins that the first relationship she enters consumes her life completely.     

Sadly, I see this all too often today.  Vivacious women who know their own minds commence a relationship, and don’t really know what they want anymore, only what he wants. They no longer care that they are not happy, because they have “love.” They are completely twisted up, suppressed individuals, and nothing you can say can make them understand this. If they used to spend time with their friends, doing things that they enjoy, they are now spending time only with him.  They no longer participate in the same activities, passing them up in favor of this boy.  Much like Catherine, they should be independent. The women’s rights movement has come and supposedly left its mark, so where is it? Why are these women still afraid to be themselves?

            In A Farewell to Arms, Hemingway’s Catherine is an extremely apt symbol for the women of today. Unfortunately, we can see traces of Catherine nearly everywhere we look. Sadly, Hemingway’s ironic portrayal of women was all too accurate then as it is now.  It is difficult to understand how a book written so many years ago can contain such a “backwards” example of a woman, and yet still have so much relevance for women today.  Depressing as this situation is, it is a mark of a good author to have their book still relatable to society 68 years after it was written, and I suppose Ernest Hemingway would be chuckling if he know how right he is even now.