Directions: Read the Webster definitions of pride and prejudice below. View the TED Talk, "The Danger of the Single Story." In a blog response, share instances in your life where you exhibited positive and negative aspects of pride and prejudice. Also, how do you see this playing out in the novel? Use direct examples from the definitions and the TED Talk in your responses. Engage with each other. Use the text. Be genuine and authentic. Think about the value of words by being concise. Think about your audience. Next, peruse my global blog. Please comment on something you found interesting and would like to ask me for more information. Also, revisit the blog. Read and respond to your fellow classmates. Get a dialogue going. Challenge each other. Be bold. Be brilliant.
Defining Pride and Prejudice
a feeling or deep pleasure or satisfaction derived from one's own achievements, the achievements of those with whom one is closely associated, or from qualities or possessions that are widely admired. synonyms: pleasure, joy, delight, gratification, fulfillment, satisfaction, a sense of achievement...
It also defines it as follows:
the quality of having an excessively high opinion of oneself or one's importance. "the sin of pride" synonyms: arrogance, vanity, self-importance, hubris, conceit, conceitedness, self-love, self-adulation, self-admiration, narcissism, egotism, superciliousness, haughtiness, snobbery, snobbishness...
Webster defines "prejudice" as:
preconceived opinion that is not based on reason or actual
experience. synonyms: preconceived
idea, preconception, prejudgment...
It is also defined as follows:
dislike, hostility, or unjust behavior deriving from
unfounded opinions...
Add another layer, and it is defined as:
accusations of racial prejudice. synonyms: bigotry,
bias, partisanship, partiality, intolerance, discrimination, unfairness,
inequality...
"The Danger of a Single Story"
by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie shares her experiences with the notion of culture in "The Danger of a Single Story" in an important TED Talk that will explain the importance of global intelligence.
"Mr. P. Goes Global"
by Eric Pellerin
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ReplyDeleteI feel proud of myself every time I achieve something that I've worked hard on and I'm proud of others for doing the same. I'm just careful never think to highly of myself regardless of what I do, and make sure to congratulate others with honesty. No positive or negative examples of pride come to mind. And as for prejudice, I don't seem to exhibit any examples of that, either. I think things through most of the time, and always take an inclusive, "anything goes" approach. This explains my tendency not to pick favorites, and my frowning upon any failure to coexist.
ReplyDeleteHere are examples of pride and prejudice in the book. The Bennets are really proud of their wealth. (Don't ask me whether this is pride in a good way or a bad way.) They hope to keep it in good hands by finding a decent husband for each of their five daughters, having no sons. (There is prejudice because the Bennets have preconceptions regarding what sort of men their daughters are to marry, but when you think about it, those were sexist times, too.)
DeleteOften times taking what you view initially can display a lot of stereotypes and the prejudice some groups have against others. Without exposure to other cultures, humans remain naïve and oblivious to the beauty of the things they do not or cannot experience. Like currently, the gap between rich and poor has been increased, and so people will think of one way about a certain group of people, and consequently would be surprised that their view is entirely off target.
ReplyDeletePride and prejudice, one word being one of the seven deadly sins, usually have negative connotations. For example, in my youth I would believe that the world “revolved around me”, and what I wished should be done immediately, not much unlike a spoiled kid. And prejudice would still be most commonly seen as racism, most commonly against people of color, thinking that they are lazier, meaner, and more likely to commit crimes. However, this is often not the case. Often times people of color can be just as hardworking and kind as people “native” to America.
Pride can be seen in the novel Pride and Prejudice mainly from Mr. Darcy in the beginning, seeming to be a distant and cold person, similar to the Grinch, and when Mrs. Bennett is struck by how other women are trying to court their girls at the same wedding,believing that her girl’s should be given priority. Prejudice can be seen when they believe that people like Mr. Darcy and Mr. Bingley wouldn’t wish to live in the country, contrary to what Mr. Bingley does.
Both pride and prejudice can be both negative than positive depending on the context they are in. Pride can be clearly seen in both positive and negative ways, a positive way is like what Owen said when you ore someone else does something they worked hard on and that they're proud of. One negative way could be Mr. Darcy in the book because of his pride he sees himself as better than others. Mr. Darcy is also an example about how prejudice can be negative because he takes his preconceived notion about the people in Netherfields that they are barbarous and he treated them as if they were savages. An example of prejudice in a positive light is that it's a good starting point for learning about a culture. For example if you want to learn more about someplace and you already know about some of their food then you can form the opinion that they have good food even though you have never been there.
ReplyDeleteInstances of pride and prejudice have definitely occurred in my life. Though there are surely many, there is one instance that involves both pride AND prejudice. It starts with the simple fact that I started playing volleyball at the end of 7th grade and the beginning of 8th grade (somewhere around there) and I still play it to this very day. My brother was the one who taught me all the basics, and I thought that that was all I needed to be great. To make sure I was the best I could be when the season started (during freshman year), my dad signed me up for an open gym volleyball program at the Cormier Youth Center. It started at 6:00 pm and ended at 8:00 pm. When I first walked in and got ready, I had a huge amount of pride, thinking that I would be one of the best one's in that gym. To go along with it, my brother ingrained this prejudice in my head that it would be the exact same way that gym volleyball was. Obviously, this was not the case. It turned out to be one of the most complex (yet very fun) sports I had ever played. I would say that this is an instance of bad pride and prejudice turned good, seeing that I now know better.
ReplyDeleteInstances of pride and prejudice in the novel are very evident. Mr. Darcy is almost the embodiment of pride, seeing how he is very cold to people and is very similar to the Grinch (as Felix said in his post). When it comes to prejudice, this is evident where the Bennett's believe that Mr. Bingley and Mr. Darcy and people of their caliber wouldn't want to live in the country, despite what Bingley does.
I can also relate to your instance of pride revolving sports. Sometimes you get a skill down and your pride shoots over the line, and you're quickly reminded to bring your pride back down when you realize where your head was at.
DeletePride: I was proud of myself when I got my black belt in Tae Kwon Do (positive). My brother is proud of himself to the point of him being cocky (negative). Mr. Darcy is proud of himself because he believes himself to be above his company. Prejudice: I can think of no positive examples. I believe that most people do have some sort of prejudice based upon their political views at least in America. People tend to see people on the opposite side of the political spectrum as the enemy and tend to put them all into the polar category even though most of them are moderate. In the book Mr. Darcy is prejudiced towards the town folk seeing their behavior as savage, but also Mrs. and Elizabeth Bennett are prejudiced towards Mr. Darcy because they doubt it when they hear that he is amiable to people that he is well acquainted with.
ReplyDeletePride and prejudice, in my opinion, are unavoidable aspects of life that we are predisposed to based on our background, culture, or beliefs. A positive aspect of pride I experience in my life is when I do well in softball. It tends to bring up my confidence and improve my performance. However, pride can become so inflated that it becomes destructive and proves the negatives of it. When my pride becomes too inflated during softball, my performance goes down because I become too confident of myself. I do not believe I’ve experienced any positive aspects of prejudice, but I have probably been the unknowing target of negative prejudice. In the context of the novel, I see pride playing a large role in the behaviors and decisions of Mr. Bingley and Mr. Darcy, considering that they are incredibly wealthy and have already exhibited pride and arrogance, respectively. Prejudice has already been displayed in the novel and I see it playing a big role in future chapters. Characters in the novel have already begun to make incredible assumptions about other characters from their “one story” perspective and are either proven right or wrong. I think the possibility of positive and negative pride and prejudice will be a main focus of the novel.
ReplyDeleteThroughout my life, pride and prejudice have been key determining factors that choose the path that I follow. In my, and just about every other student's, life, prejudice thrives, especially during the end of summer break. The typical question on every students' mind is "Do I have a good teacher?". When someone responds, the student gets their idea of the teacher beforehand and judges whether they will like the class or not, even before school starts. Another example of prejudice that occurs in people's everyday life is stereotypes. Before the actual experience of meeting someone, people judge them based on the stereotypes. Similar to what Felix said, a stereotypical person of a certain race will lead people to believe certain things about that person without any physical interaction. This is the exact situation Chimamanda found herself in when she moved to the US and was roomed with an American. The American believed that she knew little english and use of modern-day technology due to the simple fact that she was from Africa. Pride on the other hand, thrives mainly outside of school in my experiences. Pride is the essential part of all athletes during competitions. They want to feel that success that is garunteed with victory, whether it is a game or a tournament. This pride, to a certain extent, can be a good thing as it pushes people to play their heart out and helps them perform better. However, this pride if taken to the next level, would indeed result in hubris as the person believes they are "better" than everyone else because of his/her achievements.
ReplyDeleteIn the novel, pride and prejudice are two themes that are threaded throughout the story. As already stated by Matt and Felix, perhaps the most evident example of pride is shown in Mr. Darcy. He believes that he is "better" than everyone around him, a belief that is clearly communicated by his actions. Mr. Darcy is also an example of prejudice. There were rumors flying around the town about Mr. Darcy making people believe that he is a fine gentleman of extreme wealth. However, as shown in later chapters, this rumor was turned upside down when people met him.
You're totally right with the teacher thing. You hear from an upperclassmen or a sibling or a friend about how horrible the teacher is, and then you're panicking 3 days before school starts because you supposedly have the Worst Teacher Ever. But I believe that sometimes we ignore the prejudices we hear and we form our own opinion after meeting the teacher and sitting in their class for more than a month.
DeleteAlso that was me^^ I'm still under unknown because Google hates me.
DeleteAllison De Angelis
I agree that Mr. Darcy is prejudice and rude to everyone at the party, but the people at the party are also acting prejudice towards him. They hear gossip first that he is a rich gentleman and everyone is awing over him (prejudgment). Then they receive gossip that Darcy is very arrogant so everyone's opinions of him immediately change, again, a sign of prejudice and prejudgment. I think everyone at the party is responsible for being prejudice, not just Darcy. Because of this we are getting a "single story" of Darcy which is dangerous.
DeletePrejudice is not a good thing but I think we all do it and it is real hard to stop and be more open mind but when you do it expands your ideas of the world.
DeleteQuestion to Mr. Pellerin:
ReplyDeleteWhich countries has this cause spread to so far? Which countries do you hope to spread to in the future and why (specific to the country)?
Pride has always been, in my definitions, a more negative aspect. It's a gray area, yes, but my views of it tend to be more leaning toward the latter definition of "arrogance" than the former definition of "a sense of achievement." I'd like to say I'm not a proud person, but I probably am to a certain extent. I feel giddy when I get a good test grade or when I finally finish something I've been working on for a while, just as others would. As for negative aspects, I don't exhibit so much of an "arrogance" but I do have a degree of "vanity" as most do at my age in the 21st century. Prejudice also has negative connotations in my mind. I do try to educate myself and learn more rather than immediately assume or have a "preconception" as the first definition points out. One preconception I had when I was young was that Caillou had cancer because he was bald. Now I know he is only a bald child and I understand and respect that people make their own choices in regards to hairstyle and the like, and that I should not assume. And all prejudices of the negative notion are ones I could never hold, as someone who has seen and heard the awful prejudices some people believe. In the novel "Pride and Prejudice" by Jane Austen, we can all see Mr. Darcy, the perfect embodiment of lesser pride. He is "prideful" in our first meeting of him, where he was quite literally "discovered to be proud, to be above his company, and above being pleased" (6). Elizabeth Bennet, on the other hand, holds some prejudice toward Mr. Darcy for his comments on her from the beginning (and she has a right to, hearing those insulting words from a man who does not know her). When Sir William attempts to partner Darcy and Lizzy, though Darcy does not retreat when Sir William tries to match them, Lizzy does by responding "I have not the least intention of dancing. -- I entreat you not to suppose that I moved this way in order to beg for a partner" (17). She holds a prejudice toward Darcy because of his comments, and though this is a natural thing to do, it is still a prejudice nonetheless in her "hostility." I am excited to delve deeper into the book and see as pride and prejudice develops in the novel where it might not be expected.
ReplyDeleteAllison De Angelis
Is there a way for prejudice to be a good thing? Can it be beneficial to people?
DeleteChloe Hanrahan ^^^
DeleteI think it depends what your prejudice is towards and what the prejudice is itself. I don't completely feel that it could truly benefit someone, other than them feeling satisfaction in being right in their prejudice, of course that prejudice being a good view.
DeleteSome prejudices are harmless in nature, a sort of ignorance that we have because we have not yet seen or experienced how things truly are in that area. In striving for the truth, prejudice may deter you, to complete the saying "ignorance is bliss." But that's more about technicalities. Prejudice in most views is negative but I believe anything is possible and with that there would be prejudices that could be good or at least harmless (like my Caillou experience).
DeleteOn the subject of the global blog, I enjoy your enthusiasm toward Indonesia. When I first travel to a new place, I tend to only see the negatives instead of the positives of going there (what I can't do vs. what I can do).
ReplyDeleteSorry, it's me again^^
DeleteAllison De Angelis
That is very interesting, I too tend to do the same when I visit a new place.
DeleteEliza Williams-
ReplyDeleteI have experienced and saw others experience pride a lot in my life. When I first think of pride I think of someone winning a race and feeling good about themselves. This is a positive aspect of pride, however pride can be negative if that same person that won the race starts to make others feel bad about themselves for not winning. Prejudice is a little different because I feel like it is never a positive thing. Prejudice is always negative, however there are different extremities to how negative it is. For example you can have a “prejudgment”, as Webster dictionary states. A “prejudgment” is rude but, then again, everyone has prejudgments. A more extreme negative form of prejudice is having “unjust behavior” or “dislike” towards someone. In the novel, pride and/or prejudice is a common character trait. Darcy is a character who comes to the party and has a lot of pride in a negative connotation, as well as prejudice because he judges everyone there. However the people at the party who are just meeting him for the first time, like the Bennets, are receiving gossip and stories about him and only put together a single story about Darcy. As Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie said “the single story creates stereotypes” and people “make one story become to only story”. She also said that these stories “aren’t untrue but they are incomplete”. So while Darcy is rude at the party, he could turn out to be a nice guy that has a hard time opening up. Basically I think that everyone at the party is making Darcy into a single story.
I found Mr. Pellerin’s blog to be very interesting, especially the part where you included some of the questions the students asked you, like “how we keep warm in the winter”. My question is, when/if we skype the students from the schools that you visited (which I think would be a really fun and great learning experience) what would we talk to them about specifically?
Thats a very cool idea to skype to the students and see their perspective of different books like pride and prejudice
DeleteChloe Hanrahan
DeleteCould prejudice be a good thing? If it protects you or stops you from interacting with someone who could be harmful to you.
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DeleteI agree with you that Prejudice can never be a positive thing, and is always a negative aspect in someone's life.
DeleteEthan Gassé (just in case my name doesn't show haha) -
ReplyDeleteWords like pride and prejudice carry a bad connotation, at least I feel. What often happens however is sometimes we can forget the duality that most words carry with them. Pride and prejudice both carry their light and dark side that can sometimes be forgotten. Pride is often frowned upon as it inflates egos. While this is true, pride also does things like boost our self confidence and make us think better of ourselves. I think this negative thought toward pride has caused people to have such a lack thereof that they look down on themselves too much. Unfortunately, as I mentioned earlier, pride can build egos and can turn some people hubristic which is a big sad; no one likes someone with a hubris! That is how pride can be a good and bad thing.
Something like prejudice is kind of hard to justify as good, but it can be done. People generally personalize prejudice, and associate it solely with judging people before you know them. Prejudice can be bad in the sense that it is pretty close minded, but also remember that it isn't always about people. We can have prejudice towards all sorts of things, including things that could mean danger. Prejudice can be our natural instinct to keep us away from something we don't have experience with, which is wicked cool when you think about it in that light! That is the dark and light side of prejudice from what I have personally thought of and observed.
Also, I thought that the education system of Indonesia was very cool, except the part where most kids choose not to pursue higher education. Do you think that test for the scholarship is too hard, or is it just right; is it too easy? Also, are there foundations that support lower income students to encourage them to pursue higher education? I feel like if an institution was willing to invest, lower income areas would really benefit from their new generations going into fields that pay more and give more education.
DeleteI agree that pride inflates egos.
DeleteI don't agree that prejudice is a "natural instinct", it's something people develop through life experience.
DeleteChloe Hanrahan ^^^
Delete@Nick It depends on how that person views their pride. Being joyful at an accomplishment does no harm, unless, yes, they let it go to their head, but if it doesn't affect their relationships and their views and others view of them, I see no reason why pride is always harmful.
DeleteI partly agree with you Chloe, because I think a natural part of prejudice is to alert us when something is out of place, but through experience people develop what their definition of "out of place" is.
Delete@Elyse I agree with the point you made it's a good thing to have a certain amount of pride but only to an extent. It should never reach the point of it becoming narcissistic more than pride.
DeleteIn believe that pride and prejudice seem to be natural tendencies of humans to exhibit. However, it is what people do to fight these prejudice statements and moments of pride that really define a person and show that our world is moving towards a more open minded and compassionate future. In my life, I have experienced prejudice first hand when I first joined a club team. Most people I knew at the time and played with me at the high school were already on club teams from when they were younger, and it is most common for players to begin club at a much younger age than the age that I started. I felt that some of the girls at the club were falling into the prejudice idea that because I was so new to club, I would not be as good, and I could see that when the girls were hesitant to pass to me. However, as I began to prove myself at practice and games, I helped the girls to overcome that prejudice and they finally trusted me as a player on the team. An experience of pride in my life was in middle school when I got a good grade on a test and asked others about there grades. I didn't realize as I was doing it, but I now think that my pride in my grade had wanted me to ask others how they did just so I could tell people what I got. This was a bad way to deal with pride and I now avoid giving into these kinds of tendencies. Pride and prejudice are illustrated in the novel through Mr. Darcy and Lizzy who display with these feelings to each other. Mr. Darcy feels tremendous pride over his wealth and that pride has made him blind to everyone around him because he believes that everyone is below his standard. Like at the dance in the novel, Mr. Darcy would not dance with Lizzy because she wasn't "pretty enough." Lizzy has a prejudice towards men like Darcy who she believes to be: stuck up, boastful, unwelcoming, and rude. In the ted talk, the women said that prejudice develops when people are described as one thing over and over until they become that thing. Lizzy had decided she hated Mr.Darcy before she even met him. I also believe that -like the women said she felt shame after her prejudice of Mexico was proven to be false- Mr. Darcy and Lizzy will go through a similar cycle of shame as they move past their prejudice and prideful tendencies and really begin to define each other in their own terms. Lastly, to add to the negative definition of prejudice I would have to add lazy as a synonym. This is because I believe it shows laziness to not want to look past labels and discover things for yourself. It is so much easier to believe something already said, but it shows real character, when people take the time to redefine false prejudices and start to make their own connections.
ReplyDeleteMr. Pellerin, in response to your global blog, I wanted to ask if you think students at Andover High are global student? Do the small school trips to different countries make our school global or do we need to do more?
DeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
DeletePride and Prejudice can be both displayed negatively and positively throughout our lives. There are many instances in my life where I have manifested Pride and Prejudice for various alternative reasons. I practice the religion Islam, and I am genuinely proud of it. I have pride in being a Muslim and being able to follow the practices, and celebrating in our consequential holidays and traditions. Some other people can have pride in their religion, ethnic background, or race, but in the most ignorant way. It could start to get to people’s head that they are somewhat better depending on their race or religion. These certain people will start to discriminate (maybe not purposefully) against all other cultures, and religions which can now be called Prejudice. Prejudice sometimes plays a part of my life because of my religion. People now and then would discriminate muslims for their practices and the religious clothings they wear, most importantly the ‘hijab’. This racialism doesn’t just occur against my religion, but it does exclude many opportunities for other races, and religions.
ReplyDeleteThe terms Pride and Prejudice also plays a part in the novel we are reading by Jane Austen. Pride blinds two of the characters we know in this novel, Darcy, and Elizabeth. From the beginning Darcy has had so much pride about himself because of his wealth and social rank that he does not pay attention to people in the lower status. On the other hand Elizabeth is not as snobby as Darcy, but does show some pride in her ability to judge others, in this case when Darcy hurt her feelings at the first ball. Darcy also shows prejudice by forming opinions about the Bennets even though he hasn’t made time to even talk to them.
Would there be also good prejudice or pride in the book as well?
DeleteI think that it is a great thing that you can be prideful of your religion and be respectful of others! I believe that is the type of mindset we need to keep moving forward to a more accepting world, rather than just conforming to one religion or subcategory of culture. Do you agree?
DeletePrejudice can lead in terrible directions.
DeleteBut whoever you are, be proud of yourself.
DeleteChloe Hanrahan
ReplyDeleteI think pride can be both a good and a bad thing, I believe all the world can attest to this. But something about pride, that I don't think a lot of people realize, is how hard is to be proud of something, especially yourself. I know from my personal experience it's hard to be proud of yourself. I am a part of the LGBT community and for me that was a hard thing to be proud of. Something that helped me gain my pride was to see other people and celebrities being proud of that. I think it is perfect that the community's parade is called Pride because pride was the hardest thing for the community to come by and something we will never give up. I've also experienced prejudice at Pride and had some of my own prejudicial thoughts. Protesters that come to Pride have a prejudice of me and my community before they even show up to the parade, but I also have my prejudice as to who they may be. I recognize I have a preconceived notion as to who they are and why they're protesting; even though I'm usually right, and I'm sure I fit who they expect to see, it doesn't make what I have inflicted upon them right. I only wonder can prejudice be a good thing to have sometimes?
I think Mr. Darcy and Mr. Bingley are both prideful of their income, their social standing, generally who they are. Where they differ is that Mr. Bingley isn't proud of who he is in a way that makes you feel like you're less than he is. Mr. Darcy feels too much pride to "lower" himself to even interact with the people at the party. Mrs. Bennet is prejudice that Bingley will be a good husband to her daughters just because of his wealth, this is where I think the definition of prejudice becomes wonky because what other word would you use for Mrs. Bennet's thought process.
After reading some of Mr. Pellerin's blog posts I had one question: did you ever feel unsafe in Indonesia because I did a project on it and I seem to recall it not being the safest?
I really like the personal example you use and I also question the same thing: are there good aspects of prejudice? From reading other responses, it seems we all have negative experiences or views of prejudice.
DeleteSo I feel like i have shown both sides of pride especially when it comes to music. I have been incredibly proud in some of the music I have made but at the same time I have been very snobbish when it comes to music, and looked down on some others for not playing as difficult stuff. Or I have said something along the lines of "How many ensembles are you in? 2? That must be easy . I'm in 5" I feel that most people in our town have never felt or been the victim of a lot of prejudice. They have probably been affected by small acts of prejudice, like maybe someone assuming that someone that is a cheerleader is dumb or that someone who plays video games is anti social. But I don't think that many people have experienced prejudice due to race or wealth or ethnicity. Something that I found interesting in the blog was an idea of global students. I don't feel like we strive for that in Andover or in the U.S. in general. I think that our country has taken in this idea that other countries will adapt to us and we don't have to adapt to other countries. Other people need to learn English, we don't need to learn Spanish, or Mandarin, or Hebrew.I feel like this attitude should change if we want to strive as a nation.
ReplyDeleteI really like the points you're making. Definitely on the music side off things I see people thinking they are better than others due to experience or knowledge. Its good to realize that just because you are better at a skill than someone else, you aren't a better person.
DeleteI agree with you on the musical pride. I think anyone who's played an instrument has had intense prejudice and pride over other musician at one point.
DeleteIn my life experience I have demonstrated different forms pride and prejudice positive and negative. In the situation of pride I remember at the end of sophomore year I had achieved the exact grades I wanted in all my classes I strived to achieve and felt a great sense of accomplishment and was proud of my hard work. On the other hand prejudice has been a more negative aspect in my life. For example it has prevented me from doing things that I most likely would have enjoyed only because I had a preconceived notion of it that was negative.
ReplyDeleteIn the novel an example of Pride is when Mr.Darcy has too much of it too dance with the women at the ball and the reaction to this was that Mr.Darcy was rude and narcissistic. An example of prejudice was when it’s assumed that only because Mr.bingley is wealthy that he would never wish to reside in the countryside.
Throughout my life I have seen many examples of pride and prejudice. I can think of many positive examples of pride, like finally learning your favorite song on piano or taking a picture with the perfect exposure. Having too much of this pride in yourself can be dangerous and can possibly lead you to think that you are better than others. With prejudice, like Rachel, I find it hard to come up with examples that are positive. I think of when Chimamanda was talking about the house boy and only seeing him as poor, and not really being able to look beyond that. Or Mr. Bingley's sisters looking down at Lizzy for walking all the way from her house, getting her dress dirty to see her sick sister. I think that any preconceived notion can be dangerous. Not only do I think about what Chimamanda was talking about prejudice and how Jane Austen shows it in her book, I see a lot of prejudice behavior in our world. We see how a certain person looks and we automatically judge them based on their appearance. In my opinion this puts a lot of stress on people for first impressions. People see how we look, make an assumption, and then they stick to that mindset. This also ties in to Chimamanda idea on how a single story can be dangerous. We see one thing and then we can't look beyond that. To conclude, I think that overall, pride is important to ones self esteem and confidence in ones self, but only in small doses, and that prejudice holds a lot of negative ideas behind it.
ReplyDeleteCora Steffenson
DeleteAlso, addressing your blog, do students in Indonesia learn in different ways then Andover High Students? Im wondering if we should try to integrate some of their learning styles if there is one that isn't being shown in Andover High.
DeleteIn the many years I've lived, of course I've seen many different types of pride and prejudice, but personally have not been affected by them to the point where I use and think of them in a bad light. Though, now that I go over the few memories that I still have of my earlier years, I've never really have had good pride of prejudice; the only times I've used pride, specifically, in a good light, is when I'm making a story, or've made a story, and know that I've made a good story with realistic characters and a well developing plot that consists of almost no cliches, except the ones that you absolutely can't avoid. The only times I notice I have a negative prejudice towards someone is when I've gotten to know them over years and years and learned that they're kind of a prick, which I feel possibly isn't a prejudice since a prejudice is used to describe when something thinks someone is like before getting to actually know them; so... I guess ignore my statement earlier.
ReplyDeleteI have felt pride with the meaning of "feeling or deep pleasure or satisfaction derived from one's own achievements" of others but sometimes when I feel pride for myself for what I have aciveved I think about how my pride may be looked at as "prideful" like the second definition. Knowing how much pride you can have without looking the second definition of pride is hard. Prejudice is something most of us have done and have been do to before even without thinking. As soon as you see someone or hear someone you may make a preconceived notion about them like the video said. I think in novel Darcy will try to show get rid of the prejudice she has against him from the party incident and show more of himself.
ReplyDeletePride has always been a part of my life in the positive sense. While in the definition it says “an exceedingly high opinion of one's self” I really believe it's important to be proud of who you are and what you accomplish. You can never be happy without a little pride. On prejudice, I know I have it. I don’t discriminate against anyone, but I think we all have a prejudice against certain behaviors or types of people. That's just part of the society we live in. We assume things like the amount of education someone has based only on their current occupation or even accent. There will probably be drama with prideful people in the novel, and people will probably be prejudice toward the less well off.
ReplyDeleteI agree with James. Pride can be seen as a good thing in the sense that it makes you more confident and willful as a person. People who lack senses of pride I feel could lead to them having too low opinions of themselves.
DeleteI agree as well. If we don't have that sense of pride for ourselves we wouldn't be accomplishing things to the best of our ability because we'd think that our best is lower then what it actually is.
DeleteI agree that it is good to have a certain amount of pride to an extent.
DeleteI believe pride is helpful as a motivation for work. The past should act as a standard for the future and one should try to meet or exceed that standard. Pride becomes an issue if you use it as a justification for lack of work. Just because you performed well in the past doesn’t mean that effort is unnecessary to succeed anymore. I sometimes fall into this way of thinking when I think I don’t need to do homework. Prejudice on the other hand by definition is bad since it is not based on reason or experience. When I dislike something or someone I do have my justifications.
ReplyDeleteIn the novel Mr.Darcy shows prejudice when he as the ball. He refuses to dance with anyone because they are country people and he thinks that they are inferior. He doesn’t think anyone is worthy of his time even though he hasn’t actually tried to talk with any of them and understand their personalities. I think the global blog is good and doesn’t need adjustments.
I guess with the positive aspect of pride in my life is that I have pride in my nationality and heritage because I am Korean and grew up knowing the culture and customs, which I’m fortunate for. But I also lived in the US, knowing the difference in culture of both Korean and American culture and how to function in both societies. However, I’m not prideful to the point where I boast about nationality to everyone that I know. Prejudice can have positive impact, but at the same time, it can have a lot of negative effects on others. It can be good because having your own opinions about something but it can be bad when you put your opinions on others and force it on them. In the past and now, I sometimes receive racial prejudice from time to time and I’m used to it and don’t care what others think, but back then I think it was more severe than it is now. In Pride and Prejudice, the prejudice and pride that is perceived was very generic during that time period (ex: marrying off the Bennet sisters to a wealthy man or men inherit all the money in the family). For the global blog, it’s very cool how you went to a different country to learn and teach an English class. I was wondering how you get into this kind of work in the first time.
ReplyDeleteI feel the same in regards to my Taiwanese background. I won't advocate for America to be more like Taiwan but if someone asks I'd be more than happy to talk about how the societies differ and the pros and cons to those differences.
DeleteSydney Gregory
ReplyDeleteIn my life, pride has been shown to have both positive as well as negative aspects. Pride can help increase confidence, and therefore help performance. A sense of pride in yourself and your accomplishments can help to improve your overall mood, allowing one to live a happier life. For example, when I play well in field hockey, I feel very confident in my abilities which in turn improves my playing as well as my mood. However, hubris, or excessive pride, can create an overinflated sense of confidence, that can often inhibit performance and damage relationships. Overconfidence can prompt people to stop working hard and damage level of achievement, and boasting can negatively affect relationships with friends and peers. Prejudice very rarely has positive effects and instead can give you a false perception of reality. Prejudice can prompt you to say or do things that hurt other people. Since I live in Andover, which is a wealthy and higher class community, people tend to assume that I do not understand what people face outside of my community and do not know what it is like to struggle. But I have family who live in a dangerous part of Chicago have difficulties with addiction, mental illness, and suicide.
In the text, Darcy is "discovered to be proud, to be above his company, and above being pleased" (6) while attending the ball. He has pride to the point that he believes that all others are below him. Mr. Darcy and his company are prejudiced towards the Bennetts since they do not have as much money, assuming that the Bennetts are not as good as them. Through Chimamanda Adichie's Ted Talk, we learn that prejudice can give people a false understanding of someone, or their culture. Adichie talks about how the media and literature misrepresent her culture and race, and she was often unable to see herself in western literature. This false idea of her culture prompted people to assume things about her life because of ignorance and misinformation. People in Adichie’s life often thought that she was illiterate, poor or uneducated based on how she looked and where she came from.
About Mr. Pellerin’s blog, I think it would be so interesting to maintain those connections and use technology as well as social media to converse with people who live across the world.
DeleteIn my life, I have had many moments where I've experienced pride and prejudice. I've experienced pride in many moments when I achieved something that I didn't see myself doing before I did it. For example, I never knew how much I could lift, and hit a milestone two days ago. Immediately after I had an intense feeling of pride and was very happy. I also have experienced a lot of prejudice in my life, mostly throughout my middle school years when I was really fat. I would go out onto a basketball court for a pickup game, and either always be picked last or just not get picked, even though most of the time I would be just as good as the players on the court, if not better. In the novel, Mr. Darcy shows pride often in the amount of money he has, and he also shows prejudice towards people that don't have as much wealth as he does, by assuming that they are "less than him". I think that we will see later in the novel some sort of karma in effect, as Mr. Darcy is a typical kind of character seen in novels that starts off with everything and is very evil, and later ends up falling off.
ReplyDeletePride has both positive and negative ways to it with a very fine line separating them. For example a positive way is if I work hard for something and I am able to achieve my goal, then I become proud of myself and gain confidence. I believe everyone should be able to express this pride in order to feel self dignity. However, a negative way in which pride can be expressed is the way Mr. Darcey showed it in Pride and Prejudice. He put himself on top of the human pyramid with everyone else around him being greatly below him. Likewise, prejudice can be expressed in both positive and negative ways. A positive way in which I experienced prejudice was during my transfer student day I tried to meet new people because I didn’t know anyone and figured it’s nice to get to know someone brand new. A negative way in which people experience prejudice is when they only hear a single story as told by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie in her Ted talk. She tells us how where she grew up, all the books which she had read included white males and she wasn’t able to understand that people of other races, cultures, and genders can be a part of literature. Therefore, she was taught this type of negative prejudice as a young child.
ReplyDeleteNikita Orbits
DeleteFor the blog, I think it’s a really good idea and I would really enjoy communicating with people who are from different countries because I think we could learn a lot from them
ReplyDeleteTo have pride is a good thing and is essential to keep yourself happy, but too much pride can alter your sense of ego. If you are boastful this in turn, can affect your prejudice.
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ReplyDeleteI think pride is a good thing to have but too much of it is not good. There have been moments when I have had too much pride and it makes you think as if you are better than the others around you. I have learned about over-pride and hubris in previous English classes and I have learned how it can lead to your downfall, portrayed in many plays like Oedipus Rex. I can see how hubris can play out in the novel with Mr Darcy and how it could lead to his own downfall. My best experience with prejudice has probably been when I went to Turkey. I was pretty nervous going there with all the bombings that happened there but when I got there it turned out to be an amazing experience getting to see many new things that I dont get to see back in America. I liked watching the TED talk because it showed me how that woman worked hard to make books that changed people's views of where she came from and showing them things they did not know about that place.
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