Who really is Godot?

          So, let's discuss Godot from the play Waiting for Godot, by Samuel Beckett. Many people would automatically assume that Godot represents God, and how could you blame those people? I mean Godot literally has the word "God" in his name. Not to mention the play references Cain and Abel and establishes Godot as a type of savior. So why is Godot not symbolic of God? Beckett, the author of this play, is believed to have said that the name Godot comes from the French "godillot" meaning a military boot. Beckett fought in the war and so spending long periods of time waiting for messages to arrive would have been commonplace for him. The more common interpretation that it might mean "God" is almost certainly wrong. Beckett stated that if he had meant "God," he would have written "God". We, as readers, can't argue with the author so we have to find another thing or idea that Godot can symbolize. Who or what does Godot represent to the characters in the play? In my opinion, he represents that thing you use to bring value to your life. The characters in Waiting for Godot use Godot as a way to add meaning to their life. The main characters Vladimir and Estragon constantly ask each other if they can leave the tree they've been standing at and each time they reply to each other, "Let's go." "We can't." "Why not?" "We're waiting for Godot." They can't leave because they are waiting for this person they don't know. The best support for why Godot represents the ambiguous object or idea that a person uses in order to bring value to life is when both Vladimir and Estragon contemplate taking their own lives but in the end of the play, they choose not to. Why? They are "waiting for Godot."
      We must ask ourselves, what does the idea of Godot mean to me? For me, at this point in time, Godot is my grades and my faith. They add value and meaning to my life. My Christian faith is a big part of my life and it gives me purpose.  It reminds me that I'm here for a reason. I have my grades too. I know your success is not defined by how many one-hundred percents you earn in high school, but in my head, it does. I am definitely a perfectionist (I would honestly keep working on this blog for several more days, but I know it's due at midnight tonight). My grades add value to my life and I try to put forth my best effort. If I have a bad grade in something, I feel as though I'm less than adequate. My grades and my faith are my Godot.

The Falsity of Cultural Relativity

        Cultural relativism wrongly claims that each culture has its own distinct but equally valid mode of perception, thought, and choice. Cultural relativism, the opposite of the idea that moral truth is universal and objective, says that there is no such thing as absolute right and wrong. There is only right and wrong as specified by the moral code of each society. Cultural relativism maintains that man’s opinion, within a given culture, defines what is right and wrong. 
What do I think? I believe truth is absolute, immutable, and unchangeable no matter the cultural differences.  Where this gets tricky, I think, is in determining what is truth and what is simply cultural practice. The book titled Things Fall Apart, by Chinua Achebe, contains great examples from the Ibo culture (a group of people from Southeastern Nigeria) that challenges the idea of cultural relativism. One example of cultural relativity is when the "Oracle" in this book tells Okonkwo, the main character, to kill a boy deemed as useless, named Ikemefuna. Okonkwo, right after the boy calls him FATHER (ouch), delivers the final blow with a machete to end the boy's life. Okonkwo listened the his elders and followed the objective morals set by his culture. Was Okonkwo right in the murder of this innocent boy simply because his culture established it as "acceptable"? Absolutely not. It is a moral truth that life is sacred and should never be taken without just cause. Achebe proves that cultural relativity is a false idea, and that there are certain moral truths that traditions can not overcome, by showing readers how Okonkwo feels after he completed this deed. Okonkwo is distraught, does not eat for two entire days, and goes to his friend Obierika for consoling. If there are no moral truths, then why does Okonkwo feel like this after doing what his culture deemed as acceptable? Practice does not trump truth, as far as I'm concerned.
How people choose to dress, certain traditions, or their personal hygiene habits or body markings (tattoos or piercings) are generally cultural choices disconnected from any moral truths. They're simply choices. An example of this in Things Fall Apart is the tradition of the kola nut (side note: I thought this said "Koala nut" until yesterday and was mildly confused). The kola nut seems to be a key aspect of being a welcoming host. The kola nut tradition is another way of communicating respect. Does this tradition of giving a kola nut to a guest break any moral truths? Definitely not. If a tradition or manner of being does not violate any moral truths, then let it be. It can neither be considered absolutely wrong nor absolutely right. It's an aspect of life that defines the culture. If every culture had the exact same traditions, dress, language, ...ect, there would be no point in having different cultures.
While I disagree with the idea of cultural relativity, I think we can all learn something from the character in Things Fall Apart named Obierika. Obierika disagreed with Okonkwo's choice of killing Ikemefuna but what did he do after his friend Okonkwo violated the moral truth of there being value in a life? He brought the truth to his friend's attention. He did not banish Okonkwo from his house nor demolish the friendship that they share. Their differences in perspective did not indicate the relationship they had with each other. The one character understands the idea of moral truths while the other character disregards any type of absolute truth but that does not mean they cannot be friends. That's the really important part to notice. Whether you agree or disagree with cultural relativity, just remember that cultural practices do not determine whether an individual person is good or evil. 



 

White Men Above All the Rest?

Ralph Ellison speaks primarily to any young African-American in his novel Invisible Man but he also relates those African-American to females. He chronicles the experiences of a young, black male in the 1920s and the 1930s. In this time, blacks were not treated with any amount of respect and were often looked down upon. Even American, black, citizens could not vote. I, myself, as a young, white, female can not fully comprehend what they were going through but I began to understand the humiliation during the Battle Royal in Invisible Man. The Invisible man’s public speaking skills result in an invitation to speak to a group of a wealthy, white men. When he arrives, he is informed that he must participate in a battle royal with other young, black men. The boys are forced into the ring. In the center of the ring stands a beautiful, blonde, white woman. She is completely naked and the boys try to avert their eyes from her, until she begins to dance. The invisible man notices a “certain merchant who followed her hungrily, his lips loose and drooling." The woman is now  presented as an object. The men outside the ring are looking at her as a sexual object and not a woman. She becomes humiliated when the men being to reach out to touch her. Soon, she runs for the door and the invisible man describes the men as “they caught her just as she reached the door, raised her from the floor, and tossed her as college boys are tossed at a hazing, and above her red, fixed-smiling lips and disgust in her eyes, almost like my own terror." This shows the correspondence between the naked woman and the invisible man. They both feel the same terror from the men watching them. At the same time that African Americans were being treated as inferior, women were also being treated as inferiors and more of an object than a person. Women were not suppose to go to college and could certainly not hold the same jobs as the men. While many things have changed, and arguably "progressed," since the 1920's and 1930's some things will always be present and the treatment of African-Americans and women are no exception. Take, for example, the fact that in 2014, a study showed  female full-time workers made only 79 cents for every dollar earned by men, a gender wage gap of 21 percent. African- American males made only 74 cents for every dollar a white male earns. How is this all fair? It's not! This is something that we, as Americans, have the power to change. We need to close the gap between gender and ethnicity. No one is inferior to another man, solely different from them.