Balance scales

 

                           What is sexism? Sexism is defined as prejudice or discrimination based on a person's sex. Sexist attitudes may stem from traditional stereotypes of gender roles. Sexism does not only slow the growing of the economy, it increases the rate of crime and also gender-based violence. Although many people have fought for equal rights of women and men, sexism still exists in this modern world.

                 While reading Eutropia, we see these men becoming bored or tired of the previous city within Eutropia, that it is so easy for them to pick up and move into the next city. Despite all the cities being "of equal size and not unlike one another", the men become weary and can no longer bear their living situation and decide it is now time where they move on into the next city where they start fresh with a brand new job, wife, home and friends.
                     Now, how can this relate to sexism? In the most simplest way, he described these men becoming bored with their living situations from the current city and moving into the next city where they establish a new job, home, friends and wife. Why is it so easy for a man to put his wife in the same category as something that is so replaceable? The concept of the men living in Eutropia is that a wife is so disposable and can easily be replaced by a new wife who can perform the same duties and tasks as the last wife did.
                    Sadly, there are many men with the same concept of the way they perceive women today. One issue that stands out to me relating to sexism in our modern world is the existence of arranged marriages. The idea is to have a woman who can cook, clean, wash and have children. The woman doesn't have a choice or a voice in the matter. Another issue is the danger of benevolent sexism resulting in hostile sexism. The small comments or remarks made by men can easily turn into something violent if the thought of women as being incompetent or needing a man's help all the time doesn't change.

Zemrude's Eyes

                       Zemrude is a city of whatever you perceive it to be. It is not the least bit deceiving to anybody that walk the streets of Zemrude. It states in the first line, “It is the mood of the beholder which gives the city of Zemrude its form.” It is based on the mood you give to this city that results in what will come screaming back at you. Nevertheless, he does come to the conclusion that in the end, after walking down the same streets redundantly, everyone will come to see Zemrude in the same perspective.

                       I pictured Zemrude in two different perspectives. There was the optimistic, glowing and happy city where the people would look up and see the sun shining on all the colors of the city that made it a happy and comfortable place to live in. On the other hand, there was the pessimistic, dark and sad city where the people would look down and see the black and damp pavement. The people looking down sees no color or happiness. The author describes that everyone living in this city end up in that negative view of the city. 

                        As I read Zemrude over and over again, it makes sense why Italo Calvino would categorized this city under “eyes”. This city is based on how the inhabitants “see” the city. Initially, they see the city in one perspective but then they end up seeing the city with eyes looking down and what they portray the city to be for what it really is. Meanwhile, the city had always remained the same in a sense that it physically hasn’t changed yet the eyes gazed upon it has changed its complete outlook on the city over a period of time. It makes me feel the way us as people are easily deceived by bright shining lights to later be disappointed to the truth of a particular matter. 

                     This city can relate to any place that we have once visited or resigned in that we initially felt happy and optimistic about. We look up to it as a beautiful and colorful place that we are proud of. After walking through this place a bunch of times you start to see all the imperfections and ugly parts to the place that we didn’t see before. We end up feeling lost and unhappy with the place we were once proud of. This makes me wonder what the author is stating about humans and the way we “see” things. In conclusion, I feel like this is a portrayal of how a majority of people always seem to  end up unhappy or dissatisfied  with something or some place that always remained the same and hasn’t changed.  

The City of Signs


                        Think of yourself walking through a living house that had bright yellow post-it labels sticking to every piece of furniture, necessity, luxury and every piece of item that were necessary in a successful living home. It sounds a bit more distracting rather than a helpful gesture. When I envisioned myself in Marco Polo's shoes walking through the city of Tamara, it seems like a city full of necessary signs that are placed for everybody's convenience to produce order. Without these signs available, the city would lack function and order. Also, Marco Polo explains how even without a signboard, certain figures or "things" would signify its importance by representing other "things". Therefore, every piece of landmark, place, figure or statue would have its own special meaning.
                       Formally speaking, when Calvino writes about Tamara and the "signs" used, I feel like he is communicating to the reader to have an opinion about people's daily social practices. We go about our daily lives seeing what we may believe should result in an automatic reaction, response or specific practice that we fulfill without question.
                       What I thought was ironic about what Calvino wrote in the last paragraph was "You leave Tamara without having discovered it" because Tamara is a city full of signs. I feel like the reader can easily relate because we have all had our fair share of "signs" we have encountered, yet we slip through the cracks of not really understanding or grasping what the root of a situation may be. That can also relate to going back to a house full of bright yellow post-it signs. The sign labeling the toaster, the microwave, the couch or the T.V. would be a huge distraction of the feeling and comfort of the house itself.

Adelma

Adelma

                           The written piece, “Adelma”,  is a chilling and frightening look into what Marco Polo portrays life after death would be like. According to the writer, the city, Adelma, is a dark, gloomy place haunted by the living dead in which they live their daily lives knowing that they are damned for sadness, as they “arrive dying and where each finds again the people he has known.”
                            Throughout the entire piece, Marco Polo explains how everyone seemed familiar to him. For example, the sailor on dock resembled a deceased man who had soldiered with him and the girl lowering a basket from a balcony was identical to a deceased girl from his village who had killed herself over love. It was as if he was walking in the city of Adelma amongst the already dead, especially when he saw the vegetable vendor as his grandmother. It is self-explanatory to the reader that his grandmother is deceased yet he had recognized her here, in the haunting city of Adelma.                  
                            In conclusion, the best way I pictured Adelma in my mind was seeing it as if it were a bad dream. In your dreams, you encounter faces you have never seen before, yet they are a representation of people that are in your everyday life. Except, he was comparing the living and the dead. These people living in the city of Adelma reminded him of people that had already died which is why  he relates Adelma to an unhappy life after death. I agree with the writer in a sense that when you meet new people in your life, it is very rare to hear someone say, “I have never met anyone like him or her before.” We blame human nature for comparing people that we already know or have known to people we meet for the first time by finding similar traits, qualities, expressions, etc. Nevertheless, Adelma allows the reader to create an imagination of what life after death is by using faces we have once known.