Reading Journal: Castration and Masculinity

Castration and Masculinity

While reading the Body, I was able to find a very interesting part. It was a part when Gordie finds leeches on his testicles and has his blood sucked. What makes it more interesting is Gordie’s reaction to this phenomenon.

“I can’t get it off,” I said through numb lips. “You….can you…” But he backed away, shaking his head, his mouth twisted. “I can’t Gordie,” He said, unable to take his eyes away. “I’m sorry but I can’t. No. Oh. No.” He turned away, bowed with one hand pressed to his midsection like the butler in a musical comedy, and was sick in a stand of juniper bushes.

You got to hold on to yourself, I thought, looking at the leech that hung off me like a crazy beard. Its body was visibly swelling. You got to hold onto yourself and get him. Be tough. It’s the last one. The. Last. One.

I reached down and picked it off and it burst between my fingers. My own blood ran across my palm and inner wrist in a warm blood. I began to cry.

This would be the single death that actually occurs throughout the whole novel. No death was depicted with such in-depth description. Gordie temporarily faces death of his masculinity. While other boys smoked, swore, fought over petty things to look masculine and macho, Gordie faces a direct threat upon his penis.

There are two things to be noted from this passage. (1) Gordie’s attitude (2) relationship with feministic values.

(1) Gordie’s Attitude

It is always good to have companions on the trail of life. But what one should also be noted is that he is living his own life. He will live neither another person’s life nor will someone live his life for him. In such sense, this is one of the few times throughout the story that Gordie faces his own problems. Until this time of the story, the boys were all along with each other, solving dilemmas in group. When Gordie is in threat of being castrated (at least in a symbolic sense), he asks for help to Chris, whom he identifies as the group’s leader.

Chris rejects to help, and this indicates that Gordie should solve his problems alone. This is the biggest threat ever and no one but Gordie himself can help it. After a short dilemma, Gordie does succeed in taking off the leech from his testicles, and faints right after. This can be considered as a partial victory against the great threat.

(2) Relationship with feministic values

However, it also means that he have partially lost against his threat. The fact that Gordis faints is an indicator of a temporary death. What does this symbolize?

Castration is one of the biggest fears that all men possess subconsciously, no doubt. But going directly against it and fighting it off is a different issue. Only a few men can do it. Only when a man wins over his inmost fear is when he can resurrect and achieve true masculinity.

In such sense, Gordie’s experience is very similar to that of Perseus. Perseus is a plain country boy until he slays Medusa*. Medusa is the symbol of vagina dentata (fanged vagina)**, which is castration of manly figures. Hence its direct meaning, fanged vagina, it is an indication of castration. Because Perseus dares not look directly at the fear of castration, his victory is incomplete. Still, he slays the monster and becomes a hero. Gordie did not overcome his fear completely. He faints, which means that he couldn’t endure the terror of being castrated. But just like Perseus, he achieves a partial victory of winning over it himself, without the help of anybody else.

And there is another issue to consider.

That the leech had sucked blood from his testicles can be interpreted as a partial castration. Although Gordie stopped the castration, it was in process. Blood, red and vivacious liquid spilt out from his penis. This must mean that he has lost some form of masculinity that he has strived so much along with his group of friends.

But is this a negative influence in the journey for maturity? I believe not. In contrast, I think that it was a necessary process for Gordie to restrain from being an excessive macho. From the beginning of the novella, the boys try to imitate macho behaviors, such as swearing, smoking and fighting. Although such traits are far from true maturity, they think that it is “boss” and continue doing so. Gordie was also a part of such activities.

Just before this incident, Gordie encounters a deer just by himself. Although he notices that it is a feminine figure, he appreciates it. If he was along with other boys, he might have said it was “pussy-like”, or maybe shot down it with a handgun. However, he is astonished by the deer and exclaims at the beauty of it. This shows that Gordie has some feministic traits within himself. Only the partial castration made the revelation of such traits possible. No more bluffing, no more super-macho, but balanced individual with mature traits.

* Medusa is very often depicted as  a hardship that heros must pass through. However, unlike other normal mosters, it is often compared to femme fatales, or dangerous female figures. It also represents a dangerous women's sexual organ, depite its wavy hair and fangs. Its monstrous ability of leering is also a trait that contributes to the stocked metaphor.

**If you're more interested in the concept of vagina dentata, you can see this movie. It's r-rated, but still inspirational. Gives a lot of things to think over about. This movie also gives an analysis of Perseus and the overcoming by the hero. However, instead of having the perspective of the hero, this movie focuses on the women's point of view towards the villians, clearly different from heros like Perseus. It is said that the idea is rooted from Greek Mythology and Freud. Psychology wizards might be interested, so good luckㅋㅋㅋ

To Anonymous: Sorry I don't have the file. 
But I think I would be able to answer to your second question.
The idea of exaggerated masculinity can be thought as the imaginary world that Gordie possess(concept of Phallus, or the Penis). He does not think he is a "macho-man", but he seeks to achieve that ideal ego, and the internal evidence is his swearing. However, just like Hamlet when he is pierced by his rival, he gets his blood sucked off his testicles. This is very important. It means the castration of the Phallus, meaning that Gordie has succeeded to differentiate the desire of "the others" and "I". By this stage, he proceeds onto the Symbolic World. After doing so, he would be able to see himself and continue his life-thus advance in life- into the real world, not imaginary.

Reading Journal-Shawshank

How should institutionalization be done?

The Shawshank Redemption depicts how institutionalization is wrongfully done, but I had a different question in mind. What are prisons, and how should it function? When is its efficiency best shown? What rules must be made not to turn into another Shawshank? Thus, I was interested on how prison should change in the Shawshank Redemption.

The concept of prison changed throughout time. In the past, prison was a place to confine the convicted temporarily before the punishment. The punishment was a social retaliation, and was the axis of the judicial system. As time passed on, the concept of prison changed. Instead of an aid for the punishment, it became the axis of the system itself. It was the change in discourse that led to such changes. Instead of unexpected, pretentious and temporary corporeal punishments, the society needed more minuscule, expectable system. Such discourse brought out the concept of rehabilitation, and the concept called for enhancement of confinement facilities.

Discussing how the concept of rehab is fraud and folly is interesting, but I’m not going to talk about that in this piece of writing. Instead, I’m going to talk about how the prison in Shawshank should change if it wants to function better than now. To do so, I will be asking few questions leading to the improvement of prisons.

(1) How did prisons become the core of our system?

Jails are very specific form of loss in freedom of transportation. But why did it become so stressed? We have to note the fact that jails were a great fad starting from the 18^th century France. 18^th century was the time when the discourse of rights, especially freedom of individuals was developing. Before, punishment was on a universal theme of body and pain, but as rights and freedom were perceived as a human condition, the punishments begin to shift towards in such way.

Confinement was better than corporeal punishment. It could be applied to every single individual who went against the social morals, and could be measured. Pain cannot be measured, but days in confinement can. Not only that, corporeal punishment is often subjective and unreliable. It is the human who takes a major role in the ritual, which makes it incomplete and subjected to criticism if something went wrong. For prisons, it is the system and the prison walls that do such roles. The punishment is rather mild and unrecognized, making it immune to criticisms.

Confinement is more efficient and economical. That is how it became core of our system. Especially when it targets a universally important component of individual called liberty, it definitely is.

à In such means, Shawshank is not an ideal form of prison. It is not economical and not efficient. It is playing an active role in the punishment of crime, which makes it inconsistent with other prisons. Prisons should be giving exactly what the judicial system has ordered them to do. Using sisters or solitary confinements as an extra punishment is not helpful for its existence. It is the human that makes decisions, which is not reliable. Also, the guards using violence is not preferable. It makes the system vulnerable to the social morals. Punishment is best done when justified. Justification is the most powerful tool of elongating the existence of judicial system.

(2) What are prisons?

Prisons are a concrete form of complete and powerful system. It is a system that surrounds the captivated in as many aspects as possible. It should be a system of physical training, correction by labor, daily life and personality. It is a school that produces obedient individuals. It is a factory that manufactures credible products for the community. It is an army for the community to use against the moral depravity.

Above all, prisons have greatest authority upon schools and workplaces. Its great authority and successive influence differentiates it from other facilities. For students, they have homes that represent the life-world. They have the potential of rejecting the influence from the system-world of schools. However, the convicted has no life-world to escape into. Its eating, sleeping, learning, working is all controlled by one entity: the government. Because the power controls its time and space, it can and should employ all methods available to accomplish its goals.

à The Shawshank shows once again on how the authorities are failing to take advantage of the system. It gives the prisoners too much free time to have life world of their own. It enables the prisoners to have gangs of their own. Prisoners should be abandoned from any form of life-world. The moment they have a life-world on their own, it would mean that the prison is not functioning properly.

(3) How should prison function?

Prison should be completely separated. Not only should they be separated from the outside world, the separation should occur in other various aspects as well. The motive of the crime, such as money, love, and drugs should be excluded in the prison society. The prisoners should not coexist with each other. This is the key point of an efficient prison. If we allow such a thing to happen, we are concentrating the criminal tendency in one space. Also, the exclusion should be done with a clear purpose of rehabilitation. The walls will serve as a mirror; it would make the convicted communicate with no one but himself.

àThis is the biggest point that Shawshank is failing to satisfy. The prison is allowing prisoners make a society. It is evident that a society is a necessary component of criminal activity. Red’s crime happens there, the sister’s crime occurs there. Prisoners should be separated even with themselves.

Reading El Sur: Existence and Essence

El Sur


El Sur: 

           http://azulejo.atspace.com/elsur.html
                                                                                                                                                     


<My Interpretation>

Existence precedes essence. However, it seems challenging for men to claim that they are completely free from various entities. Our instinct for survival restricts our decision; logical reasoning impedes us from doing what our emotion urges us. But still, we live on concurrent with the flow of time, and finally meet our destruction without seeing the true-self. However, Borges’s short story El Sur depicts a special man who breaks the chains and finds himself. While doing so, Borges shows how even this very different man goes through hardships while searching for the true identity.

Juan Dahlmann is a grandson of somebody. He works in a library some place. Nobody knows who exactly he is. One day, he happens to lay his hands on The Thousand and One Nights. Eager to read the book, he rushes up the staircase. Then, something brushes his forehead, and he is injured severely. The light thing that brushes his forehead can be thought as time. Although light and hard to detect, time is always concurrent with the life of men, and makes people drift away passively by it. Juan Dahlmann, just like any other man, does not actively respond to the harm that time has inflicted upon himself. He lies down in a hospital, kneeling before the power of time and others’ will.

This leads to the hatred of oneself. Juan Dahlmann, suffering from pain, becomes to reject his own existence: his body, his identity and even his beard. This is a loss against the fight in becoming a free individual. Juan Dahlmann is captivated by others’ will and bodily pain. This is a major flaw in his character, and can be realized as an obstacle that must be overcome through the story. Instead of realizing his existence by personality and individuality, he acknowledges himself from bodily pain. He again takes a passive position in realizing himself.

 However, Juan Dahlmann is given a chance to overcome his weakness. Just like at the staircase, he feels something light brushing by his forehead. This time, it is breadcrumb thrown by a bunch of workers. Dahlmann refuses to admit something has happened, and runs away from the ordeal. Again, the breadcrumb brushes his forehead. Then the shop owner calls his name and tells him not to fight. This is an important literary device in the story. Before the shop owner called Dahlmann’s name, Dahlmann was nothing but a plain traveler. However, after his name being called at, Dahlmann is a significant individual who can and should make decisions out of his free will. He decides to pick up the knife given to him and fight.

Of course, his instinct would have told him not to fight. By logical reasoning, he would have realized that it would be an unwise decision. Still, Dahlmann picks up the knife anyway because it is his decision to do so. Physical threat and even logic does not impede him from being himself. Unlike last time, Dahlmann actively responds to the inevitable death as a single individual with bursting freedom. Although instinct and reason is essence of men and all animal, men are special, for they have the potential for possessing free will.