Self-Made Men

“Self Portrait in a Convex Mirror” by John Ashbery is a work of convoluted reflections engaging Renaissance painter Parmigiano, his painting “Self Portrait in a Convex Mirror”, Ashbery himself, and the soul. The poem’s source of inspiration is a physical piece of art, suggesting the poem belongs in the ekphrasis tradition. Immediate tension arises as the painting and the poem belong to vastly different traditions. The technique of ekphrasis in a postmodern tradition has challenged scholars as it…

early memories, and a love for adventure and new discoveries, lie beneath the colors of new experience. Identity as a whole in continuous and changing, however that underlying element of constancy beneath the changing surface keeps our perception of self deeply rooted in where we originate. Initial memories formed from our environment act as the first layer of color on our canvas, blending into subsequent hues, influencing the new colors and experiences of the oeuvre. As in Wilde’s depiction…

Emotional: i. Beginning: I was still immature and excited for childhood. I was ignorant to the adult life and was scared of death. The last thing I wanted to do was grow up. I was also very scared of the idea of sexual activity. ii. Middle: I was self-conscious and was very aware of my bodily changes and hated the way I looked. I wanted to be like the models seen on TV and have the perfect skin. I was also very concerned about the thoughts my peers had of me. iii. Late: I grew…

dialectic of the life and death struggle elaborates on a social phenomenon commonly observed in communal life and throughout history. The life and death struggle is a fight for recognition experienced by individuals in a state of desire. In this state, self-consciousness becomes more aware of the external world and views the other as an object - an external reality. The complication here is that recognition, by nature, is reciprocal. Therefore, not all external realities provide the same…

Relationship between Media Multitasking and Executive Function in Early Adolescents Georgian Court University Relationship between Media Multitasking and Executive Function in Early Adolescents The recent development of media technologies has made great changes to the way individuals consume media content. With convenient access to the media, individuals are more likely to overuse these technological services, resulting in increased media saturation. Having access to so many…

“Natalie Blake was crazy busy with self-invention. She lost God so smoothly and painlessly she had to wonder what she’d ever meant by the word. She found politics and literature, music, cinema… She put her faith in these things, and she couldn’t understand why” (247). Religion often comes…

larger toll on the individual than previously thought. In her book, Turkle makes a balanced argument that technology’s ubiquity and permanence in the 21st-century American society, frails the self and our individuality. Throughout the book,…

Once the reader reaches the end of the article, it is apparent that recognizing and understanding sexual identity and the role parents play in their child’s sense of self. The article was well-written and has an important message for parents of LGB teens and counselors who handle this particular subset of family counseling. The article, when taken as a whole, is very convincing and the information is relevant to current…

“Mirror Image”: External and Internal Identity In the short story “Mirror Image”, Lena Coakley explores the relationship between internal and external identity through the life of the first successful recipient of a brain transplant. Alice, 14, has been given a new chance at life after a near fatal accident rendered her body useless; Alice’s brain has been transplanted into the body of another young girl. In the time following, Alice struggles to come to terms with who she is, now that her…

basic self identity. According to Gergen, psychologists make false assumptions: that one, every person can find their own sense of identity and two, that it is perfectly healthy to do so. In context with the author’s argument, studies have been conducted in order to evaluate different ‘masks’ of identity. One study involved female college students who were asked questions about themselves by an interviewer. The interviewer, in response, gave feedback by nodding in approval, smiling, and made…