Jamie

The Imperialism of Unkind Ghosts

Jamie Keller

Dr. Foss

Take Home final examination

12/6/2021
“I hereby declare upon my word of honor that I have neither given nor received unauthorized help on this work.”

Option 1: Thesis-driven literary analysis focused on one aspect of An Unkindness of Ghosts

Word count: 1,061

The story “An Unkindness of Ghosts” takes place in a world, far into the future after the world has already been destroyed. The last living humans are on a spaceship, are on a spaceship with multiple different levels and jobs set for each person. While on the ship, there are strict rules and there is also one person who rules over the entire ship. The society that formed in the ship created a system similar to the European imperial system.

First and foremost, with how the ranking system is set up, it is very reminiscent of how money and rank tends to stay with those who already have it. There are three overall subtle language changes that happen between the upper and lower levels. The upper levels have a more proper language that is more ‘noble-like’ while the lower class have a more ‘rough’ language and the middle class is a mix between the two. If someone who is from the upper class overhears something from the lower class’ language would not be able to understand it unless there is a specific reason from their past why they would be able to understand it. Traveling between each of the levels is not allowed, especially if they are someone of the lower levels, unless they have a pass which is a way of control. Continuing on the form of control, if anyone breaks a martial law that was put into place, like the head count, there are extreme punishments similar to how if a slave broke a rule would get a punishment more severe then it should have been in modern days.

Money and how people view you are also a part of the older version of imperialism. Those with a lot of money, land, and are talked about either through rank or through being extremely good at something. Those specifically are carried through the family line and those that do not have access to that or are able to make a name for themselves, tend to stay in the lower class. If people view someone else as different, they normally get shunned out of society, in this “Unkindness of Ghosts”, those that are not welcomed by society are living in the lower levels of the ship. Their conditions are extremely poor, just like the slaves and peasents of the past as they are doing whatever it takes to survive to day to day. Throughout the story, there is continued proof that the conditions needed to be improved. The examples are such as freezing temperatures that gave someone frostbite and being punished for just wanting a change. Those that are from the lower class or levels that are seen for wanting change enacted by others with more power are seen as crazy or too lazy to be able to pick themselves up from their boot straps and make the situation better themselves. Even if you are extremely smart but have something that no one likes, it makes it hard to be able to change it. Most people would think of them overcoming the disability rather than actually being smart which is a sad reality of the real world. If seen as defective or not following the social norm of how one is supposed to act, then you stick out like a sore thumb that others feel like they need to fix.

With how the story ends, it shows how the world works in reality. Not all disability characters get killed off or get cured for their “happily ever after”. Everyone is not suddenly “happy” with their living conditions because they got a bandaid over any old scars that there might be. It shows that no life is perfect and not every story has a happy ending because life is full of ups and downs. There is no life that is perfect every single day, nor does bad things happen every single day. An important thing to remember is that from day to day, those living in an imperialistic society would not be thinking of those ruling over them unless a major event is happening to the ruler or the fact that they are going through a bad day. Each person is going through their own lives and another person’s life does not usually matter.

When finally getting back to earth, and escaping from an imperialist government, mixed feelings fell upon Aster. She was sorry for everything that she had lost to get where she was now but at the same time, she was finally happy to be where she was supposed to be. In terms, if she had just listened to those above her, she wouldn’t have lost those close to her, on the other hand though, she would not have gotten to earth by disobeying. Which brings in the question, which is better? Being in a government that is absolutely horrible to those of the lower class and those that are different, or being in a completely forgeign land by yourself and no one to be able to help besides the skills you have learned? I think in Aster’s case, since she always felt a little alone, the latter was better for her and most probably would agree. Those that have a better rank in the society would probably not want that same choice and go with the first one. When it comes to real life, it might be hard to make the choice because if you do not have the skills to be able to survive on nearly nothing, it might be safer and give you the ability to more than likely to survive if you stay with something familiar. At the very least, Aster now has the ability to do whatever she desires. There is no one stopping her from reaching her full capabilities nor no one punishing her from doing what she thinks is right. In any story, of course the main character is usually in the right, unless proven otherwise so I have a feeling that whatever plans to do now that story is over is going to be the best for herself and any future humans that happen to escape and come back to earth in the future. With the knowledge she has, hopefully she knows better than to set up a system that empowers those with ill intentions for those who are weak and different.

Major Project, [Jamie Keller, and Secret Garden]

I hereby declare upon my word of honor that I have neither given nor received unauthorized help on this work.

Word Count (Not including above): 522

I had two main goals for this project. The first goal, though not entirely designed for this class, but more to make this project entertaining to watch, was to record it for my youtube channel. The second step of that goal was to make it multi-purpose, so that those who didn’t care about the Secret Garden story could still enjoy it. The second goal, and the one for this class was to help make something that could help visualize the secret garden while also talking about the meaning behind it. I talked a little about my process through the videos, but I will explain the basic thought behind the overall process. I had to find a place where I could build the garden and terraform it so I could properly build the garden. The next thing I did was build a working “gate” or “fence” around the garden with vines to represent the overgrown nature. I knew I had to have an iron door with a lever to represent the locked door. Over the remaining things was to do the flavor designing, such as the trees or the roses or the robin. I feel like showing the overgrown nature of the garden can relate to the mindset of those with a mental illness as it goes against the “social norm” of someone with a healthy mindset. Those with a normal mindset try their best to “clean up” or “correct” those who have a different mindset. Even as the Secret Garden joked, good thoughts, vibes, and working hard to try and correct that mindset should work, but in actuality, it doesn’t always work.

Originally, I was planning to clean up the garden as well to talk about rebirth as well to talk about how some people can feel “reborn” if they get the proper treatment that they need. Unfortunately, due to time constraints, I am choosing not to do that and re-aligning my focus. Being able to show that it is okay to have a broken world and being able to make the most of it, shows that those who seem “broken” can still have an amazing life. They can still like who they are and not be thinking about fixing themselves. Even if someone isn’t viewed as mentally or physically able, someone could view themselves as healthy as they can be. That does break the social “norm” of being okay with something that makes someone appear as weaker.

The reason why I tailored these videos for my channel was because I was inspired by a handful of minecraft youtubers and I wouldn’t be where I am right now because of those youtubers. I wanted to try and inspire those who would watch this in the future and not in relation to some project for a class. Hence why there was a vagity of what I was talking about in each of the videos. If I pressed further about the class, I would be concerned that some people would try and find more about me. At the end of the day, that isn’t a thing to worry about or the intention of it.

Jamie’s Class Summary for October Fifth

Word count: 1437 words

On October fifth, the class started off with a quiz. The class joked lightly about each question being repeated. There were two questions on “To kill a mockingbird” chapters twenty two through twenty seven, two on the “Beasts of Burden” and the final question was on the “Symptoms” poem. After the quiz, Professor Foss went into several extra credit opportunities that were coming up. Some of these events have already passed but one event that is happening in a few days is on October thirteenth. It is a coco movie night that starts at 6:30 p.m. in the channeler ballroom.

The first reading we discussed was a small portion of the ‘Beasts of Burden’. The chapters that we read were chapters nine and ten with a small portion of chapter eleven. In the story, it comments on how people with disabilities often get dehumanized. My small group discussed the fact that even though humans are technically animals, we don’t usually think of ourselves as animals. There is often a negative connotation being associated with an animal. For example, being associated with a snake or cat means you are sly and untrustworthy. I overheard one of the other small groups, while discussing this, joked that it doesn’t matter because “we are all animals anyways.” One of the first people that is brought up in chapter nine is a woman named Pastrana. She and her son died several days after she gave birth. Pastrana was only twenty six at the time. Her body was heavily covered in fur like an ‘ape’ or a ‘bear’ as the story describes it. Once she died, she was embalmed and went around on tour. The tour lasted for 112 years and no one even thought about properly putting her to rest. As my group said, it goes to show that Pastrana was seen as an object rather than a person or a human being. Another thing that we mentioned was that those that are disabled often aren’t seen as the same as those without disabilities. An additional thing I overheard was in relation to Pastrana, “taking out internal organs, the body will last a long time because there’s nothing progressing the aging process.” I don’t know if this is actually true, but it was something interesting I heard. The final thing I overheard in relation to chapter nine was that chapter nine was all about being objectified by others. Continuing on what they were saying, chapter ten is about people taking control of the names others call them for themselves. On a similar note to what I overheard about those two sentences, it is about other people’s labels versus people’s own labels or no power versus their own power. As I already started to write, chapter ten is about people embracing who they are, especially the money girl and the alligator skinned man as some others commented on. They ended up getting married. Since they actually embraced their conditions, they were able to somewhat control what other people called them. The beginning of chapter ten it was brought up that Percilla Bejano was similar to Pastane in terms of her condition, but instead of being exploited while being dead, she was exploited while being alive. Both of the Bejanos took control of their circus life which meant that they had more control of their disability rather than having a negative affect on it. Besides the Benjano couple as I just mentioned, one of the other main people that is discussed in chapter ten was Otis Jordan who had arthrogryposis. Because of his arthrogryposis Jordan was unable to find a job so he ended up going to join the circus. Our group commented on the fact that when a disabled woman who was a disability rights activist saw his show, she went to court to try and get the court banned. We were surprised that not everyone had the same view on it, especially with the difficulty of trying to get a job. Not everyone sees the good out of a bad situation based on their personal experiences. Our small group also took note in the final chapter in “Beast of Burden” that there are cases where people with disabilities don’t always get a choice when they get ‘fixed’. Sometimes they feel better because they could’ve been in a worse position then they are now, but they could also wonder what it would’ve been like if they weren’t fixed. There is also the fact they could feel like their body is no longer theirs.

When in the big group, nearly everyone had different thoughts on what was read. One of the things that the large group mentioned which was similar to the small group was that the human brain is developed differently from other animals. Many people who are not disabled consider people who are disabled as “suffering” or as animals. For example, is there a ‘natural’ body when drawing a line between animals and humanity? Where does the line get drawn? After all, what is wrong with society if the only option left for those who are disabled, is to join the circus. Oftentimes in dystopian societies and other stories, the homeless, disabled, and African Americans have comparisons to animals. It is assumed that tourists don’t want to see the homeless or disabled in the world, as shown in utopian societies. The shift in discussion happened when people started talking about how people can’t know what those with disabilities are going through. Those that have the same disability can have entirely different experiences as everyone grew up differently. There are times when people don’t want to say how they feel because they always hear that there’s someone worse off than them, such as ‘kids starving in africa’. They forget that what they feel is valid.

The next thing we discussed as a large group was the Symptoms poem. It is about a woman who is going through sclerosis. She describes it like she is wearing a corset as if she’s trapped in what she can do and she hates it. Corsets were to fit the fashion in the past, but it was a very dangerous fashion trend. Lambeth isn’t defeated by it though. She struggles with trying to find the right words to explain how it feels and the lines may be intentionally disjointed to show the struggle. As she puts it, the disability tends to remain hidden but occasionally she has to show it when her clothing ‘drops’. Even if it doesn’t seem that hopeful it offers a perspective in a way that others couldn’t imagine before.

The final thing we discussed was “To Kill a Mockingbird” chapters twenty two through chapters twenty seven. It was very weird when people were trying to make Scout a lady even though she was only eight at the time. For reference, in modern times, when a kid is eight, they are usually in second grade which most people don’t try to make kids try and act more mature. Granted, her personality might have been slightly influenced as there was no mom in Scout’s life, but most people don’t try to abruptly change it. It usually isn’t until middle school when kids start figuring themselves out and in highschool when a kid’s behavior starts setting in stone. Though, we did have a chuckle on how Scout noticed Jem was becoming more of a man. We eventually shifted to Tom Robinson and the trial. Until he was introduced, we just knew him as an African American. When it was revealed he was disabled it was a mild surprise because the disability wasn’t really talked about. The issue that the townsfolk had with him was that he was an African American rather than disabled. If he was white, we were sure that there would be more of an issue with it. People commented on the fact that just because he was disabled, he was innocent. It would be a sin to kill him, just like it was a sin to kill a mockingbird. There was also an offhand comment that there didn’t seem like there were many African Americans, or at the very least, those that played a major part in the story. There was also the fact that it seemed like mixed kids seemed to be ostracized. That was the end of most of the conversations as it pattered off. Professor Foss was kind enough to let us out of class early as it was the week before break. People were happy about that. I hope you enjoyed this rambling of the class period.