Miss Emily's Madness

First, I’m sorry I could not come up with a creative title for this post.

Recently in class we have been discussing feminist criticism and reading the short story “ A Rose for Emily”,  this story is about the life of this woman Miss Emily Grierson who refused to change with the times.  However, I will be looking at our dear Miss Emily through a psychoanalytic point of view.  The earliest point in her life that we are told about is the death of her father.  She at first is in complete denial and does not let the doctors take his body away fro three days.  She exhibits extreme denial,  which is a pathological defense mechanism,  it is understandable for her to have this reaction, as her father is now dead, however she reacts this way with every form of conflict.  Another time she does this is when the town goes to her to collect tax money, she simply repeats “ See Colonel Sartoris” who has been dead for some time.  Due to her using this defense mechanism we can deduce that she has snapped and that her father’s death could have been the cause of it.  I believe that there is a chance that this singular event is not totally to blame.  Also we learn that her father took care of everything in her life and taught her to think like the rest of her family, that they are ultimate beings and are better than every other person in the town.  So she for her formative years never really had to do much leaving her in a spoiled almost infantile mind frame.  

An interesting theory that I thought of about Miss Emily’s pathological tendency to revert to denial could be that she is a result of inbreeding within the family.  Now hear me out on this,  her great aunt Wyatt went crazy, it was also assumed that in turn Emily would go crazy.  Most people do not assume something if it only happens once, therefore other members of her family have more than likely gone crazy.  This makes her fragile mental state a genetic issue.  Her father it is noted, chased any suitor away from Miss Emily, on the grounds that she was too good for them.  The families weird arrogance and pride could then also be taken as that they are only people who were good enough for the Griersons were… the other Griersons.   Which makes Miss Emily an inbred, inbreeding within a family narrows the gene pool and makes the less desired traits more pronounced in a group, one of these such traits may be the mental instability that seems to run through the Grierson family tree.  

Another Blast from the Past

So, I’m not sure if I will do all of my blog on dinosaurs but a lot will probably be on them.  This is one of the more bizarre looking ones found in what is now Mongolia during the Cretaceous period, the last part of the age of the dinosaurs.  Therizinosaurus looks like if someone caught Big Bird on a bad day,  it was bipedal and had three long claws on each hand that grew to one meter in length.  It used these claws like how a sloth uses its claws, to strip leaves off of trees which at standing around six meters tall and nine meters long, was not a challenging feat.  So despite how intimidating it looked, it was strictly a herbivore which is why it evolved a long neck to reach trees and fruits.  While no complete skeleton exists of this species, they have been able to guess at what it looked liked based off of other members of the same family.  It walked on two legs and had wide bird like hips which gave it a broad body so it probably walked something like a duck.  Another unique thing about it’s skeleton is that it has four toes, most other theropods had three with the fourth two being a smaller toe on the side of its leg, so it having four evenly sized toes is very peculiar.  

However, this dinosaur was not a passive herbivore, its large claws were more than likely also used as a defense mechanism.  It’s large stature and long claws made it a formidable prey for any large carnivore in the area such as Tarbosaurus.  It’s body a patchwork of various dinosaurs probably allowed it to survive in various climates and seasons of the time.  Just like Dakotaraptor, Therizinosaurs was more than likely covered in feathers as well, making it look even more like a deadly big bird.  Despite being a herbivore, I would never want to run into the prehistoric equivalent of Freddy Krueger even if he was eating a salad, much like this guy.  

http://41.media.tumblr.com/e1da704acb7417404157914dba709f43/tumblr_njkylzi9Rw1tssrrao1_540.png

here is it compared to a human.

http://vignette3.wikia.nocookie.net/greatmultiverse/images/6/6a/Therizinosaurus_by_damir_g_martin-d7841jm.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20141126093404

here is it in its hypothesized natural habitat.

A Blast from the Past

With this break in between lessons, I am going to take the time to talk about my favorite group of animals that have ever existed, that’s right dinosaurs!  They are the most diverse group of microorganisms that have lived, ranging from Microraptor, at a measly 16 inches, to Sauroposeidon with its head 59 feet off the ground.  However, no family of dinosaur is as known for its killing power as the raptors.  They have large claws and can outrun a cheetah,  the newest member of this species is the largest on record, Dakotaraptor. While new evidence shows that Velociraptor is not anywhere near as close to how it is portrayed in Jurassic Park rather it was a much smaller and more feathery creature. Dakotaraptor was around 16 feet long and lived in what is now the midwestern United States.  What is remarkable about this dinosaur is that despite its large size, it has true wings, which means that it was on the evolutionary pathway of flight.  However, since it was too large to fly, the mystery now is what the wings were used for.  I believe the wings were for attracting mates much like birds today, as well as possibly for intimidation against other large carnivores such as tyrannosaurus which lived alongside it.  This dinosaur, if it were alive today would be one of the most terrifying to live alongside as it was one of the top predators of its area and despite looking like a massive turkey, would send anyone packing.

https://www.fossilera.com/p/504/1024x1024%3E/rjpalmer_dakotaraptor_conceptart_001_by_arvalis-d9ev6iw.jpg

here is a link to it in comparison to a human.