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THE GOOD LIFE, AGENCY One constant tenet of living a good life that…

- - - - This novel pits the two extremes of individualism and collectivism
        together as the Anarresti share everything (even children and parents) and the Urrasti focus on possession and egoism. On Anarres, Shevek was overwhelmed by the burden of having to do things for everyone around him while not being able to be full satisfied with the amount of time and effort he can spend on his own research. This represents the dangers of collectivism because there is not enough room for people to chase their own individual aspirations or have any sense of individuality at all. On Urras, Shevek was able to work without any limitations but the results would go to fueling the egoism of the state rather than helping the people he genuinely cared about in his own community. This represents the flaw in individualism as the selfish, greedy motives are revealed. This novel implies that there should be a balance between the two where people can do good to support the community but not be consumed by having to spend your entire life sharing everyone's burden.
      - This novel explores many insightful questions through the concept of anti-utopia which pokes holes in each planet's societal structure and questions how an individual should work to function within the larger society.
      - Both works involved a lot of traveling and exploring the situations of various locations in a societal and cultural manner. This provided options for the main character to find a community in which they feel the most compatible with. This could illustrate the importance of broadening one's horizons to know different cultures and societies, so one can figure out where they can fit best to live their lives well.
    - - The attitude of the community around Changez changes for the worse after the events of 9/11. Although he always appears to be different from the friends and colleagues around him, there is not necessarily a hostile environment for him as the community at work respected him. This represents a community in which one can live a good life in. One is free to be different from the rest and is still able to hold respect. However, the discrimination he faces from the environment around him after the events of 9/11 represent a community in which he is not welcome in. He constantly has opposition against who he is despite not having committed any crime and he is unable to stay in the country he used to admire due to the community, which is hostile towards him. Changez ultimately moves back home and becomes a respected teacher. Through this movement, the author communicates that people should find a place where they feel a sense of belongingness where their community can support them because that is where people can flourish their lives and live without unjust opposition.
  - - - Near the conclusion of the play when Walter Lee Younger loses the rest of his father's life insurance money to Willy, the Younger family gets into a heated argument. Even still, Mama assertively brings up what she and her late husband taught the children. "There is always something left to love" (Hansberry 144). This was held to be more important than other lessons they taught the children like despising any man who went down on their knees as Beneatha mentioned (Hansberry 144). This suggests that the values of family are more important than other values when trying to live a meaningful, fulfilled life.
      - Furthermore, right before Walter's speech to Mr. Lindner, Mama tells Walter to teach his own son what the generations of the Younger family have led up to. Despite Walter being focused on gaining money throughout the play, this appears to sway Walter to stand up against Mr. Lindner and decide to move in his family to a new home rather than taking his money (Hansberry 146). This represents the importance of family ties and upholding the tradition of family over material gain. The author asserts through Walter's actions that being aware and thinking about family is important for everyone in the family to life happily.
    - - Dong-Ik Park (father of Park family) complains about his wife's inability to do housework and is excited to "play the role of a good husband" when Ki-Taek Kim (father of Kim family) offers "The Care" business card (Joon-Ho 47:17 - 49:49). Dong-Ik appears to care about putting up a front that his family is functioning rather than truly caring for his family as people. This symbolizes how although the Park family has all of the wealth and positive superficial aspects of a "good life", the deeper bonds between family members may not be as strong. On the other hand, the Kim family has very little wealth but upholds the values of love and family as they never turn on each other and work together to try to survive. This opens up the dialogue to consider the importance of family love in having a fulfilled life. Rather than upholding appearances of having a content family, the author suggests it can be more meaningful to have a family that genuinely communicates with each other and loves each other.
    - - This novel explores the clash between obligations between family and the state as Creon and Antigone hold opposite ideas. Creon believes that people should have their duty to the state be the highest priority as he says, "whoever places a friend above the good of his own country, he is nothing" (Sophocles 203-204). Antigone places more value on family ties and believes that Polynices should deserve a proper burial because he is her brother. Antigone's actions literally portray how a life without upholding family values is a life not worth living when committing suicide. Using Antigone's fierce determination, Sophocles illustrates how aiming to live a good life is more important than staying alive and that one's personal values in family should be upheld more than the superficial values of the state.
      - When comparing the two plays, the lesson on the importance of mature communication can be derived. Both works involved conflict within the family with family members having differences of opinion and goals. However, in A Raisin in the Sun, an understanding of the importance of family is eventually reached as Mama kept believing in Walter to uphold family values. On the other hand, Polynices and Eteocles fought each other to death which is a tragic conclusion, and Creon simply locked Antigone away in a cave rather than listening to her, which led to even more tragedy. Together, they highlight how proper communication within family can lead to better outcomes.
  - - - Haemon represents an extreme form of committing to a romantic relationship. After seeing Antigone hanging dead in a cave, he committed suicide while hugging her lifeless body (Sophocles 1360-1370). The decisions to die rather than to accept Creon's forgiveness represents how love can be a critical factor to living a life worth living. Although the action is exaggerated in this medium, it represents the importance of love in the context of life and how difficult it can be mentally to deal with romantic loss.
    - - Ki-Taek Kim (father of Kim family) asked Dong-Ik Park (father of Park family) whether he loved his wife, and Dong-Ik scoffed (Joon-Ho 48:00-48:20). Later on in the film, Ki-Taek reminds Dong-Ik of this and Dong-Ik gets incredibly irritated. This irritation symbolizes the emptiness people can feel when their romantic lives are not deep nor genuine. Dong-Ik focuses on the superficial aspects of having a wife "for show" to uphold the expected family norm while Ki-Taek focuses on loving his wife for who she is, which can be seen when he jokes with her when she calls him a cockroach (Joon-Ho 1:02:10 - 1:02:55). This communicates the message that people should partake in romantic relationships genuinely and not for superficial reasons to live a more meaningful life.
    - - Flaubert portrays Emma to have grandiose ideas of love and wealth which exceed the standards of reality. Her adamant nature to believe in impossible versions of love and wealth prevent her from enjoying her current life as is. Despite being depicted as beautiful, she finds great discontent with her romantic life and her visions of pure love are slowly broken down over time as she commits adultery and is dissatisfied with her romance. This dissatisfaction symbolizes how love in any form should not be expected to be perfect, otherwise discontent will follow. If an impossibly high standard is set and then the standards are never met, this can cause eternal suffering from the person's point of view. To avoid this, the author implies one should not be disillusioned with impossible fantasies or at least be aware of the possibility of things not being as genuine or pure as they are in ideals. This is exemplified between Emma and Rodolphe's exchange where Rodolphe does not believe in Emma's words to be genuine, and in the end, Emma suffers for placing her belief in her romantic fantasy.
      - The use of free indirect style allows the readers to understand beyond the confines of the character to comprehend the situation better. The narrator or author can be trying to put an ironic twist and convey a message through one of the characters. In this case, Flaubert is ridiculing Emma's overly grandiose vision of romance and wealth.
- - - - The conclusion of the play reveals the importance of being able to chase after a dream. Although the Younger family is entering an uncertain, racist environment while moving into Mr. Lindner's neighborhood, they all appear hopeful. Moving into a new house represents the importance to take a leap of faith to chase after dreams and leave stability. Rather than having the characters worry about the future, Hansberry breathes life into them as they become ecstatic to try to achieve their goals. These sparks of positive emotion reveal the impacts that chasing dreams have on people and suggests that they are a part of living a meaningful life.
      - Despite having a stable job, family, place to live, and the means to continue living, Walter is discontent with his life because he has aspirations to do more. This is conveyed through this exchange, "Man say to his woman: I got me a
        dream. His woman say: Eat your eggs" (Hansberry 37). While his wife and mother are trying to convince Walter throughout the story that he already has a good life, him not being able to chase his dreams make him anxious and restless. This communicates how trying to chase after dreams might be a key component of being satisfied with your life beyond the fundamental ideas of the "good life".
      - In both the case of Emma and Walter, they are both discontent with their seemingly unattainable dreams to the point of crippling their happiness. Due to this, they are also unable to appreciate the good parts of their lives and this fixation on their deferred dream brings them dread. When no realization is ever made, the deferred dream can conclude fatally like Emma's suicide. If there is an epiphany, like when Mama told Walter to teach his son, one can resume a good life.
    - - Ki-Woo Kim (Kim family's son) drives forward the story as he continues to chase after his dream of upward mobility. He continues to expand on his dream adding on that he will graduate from college and even marry Da-Hye Park. These thoughts bring the Kim family hope and justify to Ki-Woo that it is worth living his current situation because there will be a day when he can see that his dreams are realized. The director conveys that a dream can allow people to surpass their physical struggles and think into the future. It can develop people to work hard and think critically to better their situations and have hope. Even at the conclusion of the film, Ki-Woo still maintains his hopeful outlook because of his dream despite the fact that his situation is even worse than when the film started. This reveals how powerful the force of a dream can be in the positive direction to keep people living and striving to better their condition with perseverance.
    - - Emma has many aspirations in the novel ranging from dreams of a more ideal romantic partner to the desire of wealth and moving to the city. Ultimately, these dreams were unattainable and they act to be suffocating. These unrealized dreams and betrayal of her ideals of love and wealth cause her to become unstable and leads to her self-destruction. This represents how if a dream is unattainable, it can only act as a draining negative force on the individual, which decreases their quality of life. This primarily occurs when the individual realizes that their dreams are being shattered and not possible to attain.
    - - Shevek embodies the importance of being able to chase after your own dreams while being aware of your surroundings. Specifically, in Anarres he realizes that his dream is being impeded on by the social obligations upholding equity in his home planet while in Urras he feels that the environment is using his dream-chasing attitude to their advantage. Through Shevek's epiphanies of the faults of each society, the author conveys that living the "good life" involves responsibly chasing after one's dream to not only bring happiness to yourself but also to those around you. Through the exploration of both societies, the author communicates that is important to know the consequences of chasing your dream in the context of your environment to truly decide if it is a dream worth chasing.
      - Both works end with the transmission of knowledge to the larger whole population. In the case of Changez, he becomes a professor at a university back home and tackles on political topics while directly protesting against America. Shevek's completed invention can help communication across the galaxy instantaneously and was formed from his work between the two planets, and indirectly, this can help the two planets communicate to find an optimal balance between their two ideologies. This represents how people's dreams and aspirations can impact the larger population for the greater good.
  - - - Instability of Changez's identity and environment occurred after the events of 9/11. He was constantly mislabeled and his colleagues treated him with less respect and dignity than before. This represents chaos rupturing a stable life, and when the instability increases to a point where, Changez is unable to manage it, he is forced to go back to his home country. This represents an attempt to bring back the balance between chaos and order to continue living a life he can handle. Before 9/11 his life had a predictable pattern and he was exploring his identity in a safe manner by taking on his role as the "foreigner" in his social circle and work life. However, the entire schema in which he viewed the world was drastically changed to a point where he had to move back to a place of familiarity. This represents the necessity of there being a balance between order and chaos to have stability in one's life.
    - - In both A Small Place and Life and Debt, there is an emphasis on economic instability of third world countries causing a significant decrease in the quality of life in the native people. This is juxtaposed with the tourist who temporarily come to the country for a quick vacation because they are purposely looking for a way to make their stable lives more exciting. This highlights that there needs to be a balance between stability and chaos for people to live a fulfilled life. By experiencing new things and dealing with uncertainty, people can develop themselves, but if there is too much uncertainty with the future, it can cripple people's lives and leave them unable to plan for the long-term.
    - - Emma expressed discontent with her life because she was stuck in a marriage with her incompetent, boring husband, Charles. This is exemplified during meal times when she "amused herself with drawing lines along the oil-cloth table-cover with the point of her knife" while waiting for Charles to finish eating (Flaubert 62). Although she had stability in her life in the country town, it became incredibly monotonous for her. Emma's yearning for more represents the importance of not having too much stability. Having too much stability can stunt personal growth and lead to a boring life. The author suggests that this level of stability is detrimental to live a fulfilled life.
- - - - Madame Bovary
        
        Gustave Flaubert portrays Emma Bovary as a prime example of people's potentials being limited by gender inequalities. In this novel, Emma lacks the power to change her life, and this is juxtaposed by her male partners always possessing the agency to change her life because "a woman is always hampered" (Flaubert 86). This is exemplified when Charles incompetence limits Emma's social mobility, Rodolphe accompanies her only to abandon her when he wanted, and Leon is able to fulfill his dreams and move to the city while Emma was unable to. It appears the only way she can control her life is to control who her male partner is by things like adultery. This severely limits the path of her life and even her decision to take her own life needed the help of a man, Justin. Emma's entire life represents how limiting the path of life is for woman in a misogynistic environment and emphasizes the injustices of limiting woman's agency. Without power to control her life, Emma is led down a dreadful path without any other options.
        
        Both Antigone and Madame Bovary have their heroine's suffer through unrealized dreams and conclude with suicide because their agency was dominated by male figures in their life. The portrayal of their deaths call forth a necessary change in society to prevent more women from becoming victims to sexism. By stripping away their agency, their only available choice is to choose to live or die, and this drastic depiction of choosing death emphasizes the importance of allowing equal treatment for both sexes in terms of respect and opportunity.
      - Antigone
        
        Creon represented aspects of unjust sexism when he claimed things like, "While I'm alive, no woman is going to lord it over me" (Sophocles 592). His stubborn stance against Antigone's wishes created unfortunate circumstances in every character's lives as the conclusion involved suicide after suicide of Creon's own family. This portrays how sexism can have collateral damage to the perpetrator alongside the victim. The structure of society must have fair standards for all genders for everyone to be able to enjoy a "good life".
        
        Sophocles portrays Ismene to be the only one trying to take on some of Antigone's burden as she even pleads to be sentenced to death with her, "please, let me die beside you" (Sophocles 612-613). On the contrary, all of the figures going against Antigone appear in the play as male figures such as Creon, the Leader, and the Sentry. Furthermore, when Ismene is trying to plead to Creon to let her sister live, she attempts to reason by saying, "[why] kill your own son's bride?" This shrinks Antigone's life to simply the satisfaction of another man, and her reasoning is essentially ignored as she is exiled to a cave. Even Ismene is hardly listened to as she is left alive and not punished alongside Antigone as she wanted. These results reveal the injustices caused by lack of gender equality and highlight the need for equality for people to have agency over living meaningful lives. Antigone not being able to bury Polynices and Ismene not being able to die with her sister represent meaningful lives not being lived due to misogyny.
        
        The political power difference between Creon and Antigone reveal a societal structure that lets the one with most political power decide who is mourned and who is not along with who gets to live and die. This power dynamic strips away the ability for the people to negotiate and have agency over the outcomes of their lives. Antigone, representing people with less societal power, futilely struggles against Creon, representing tyrannical power. Antigone is denied the ability to properly bury her brother Polynices and is even denied a proper burial herself as she is found hanged in a cave (Sophocles 1345-1347). This portrays how drastic difference in power within societal structure can lead to the unjust denial of living a good life for the people with less power. This highlights the necessity for a balance in power for everyone to be able to control the outcome of their life, which is important to living a good life.
        
        There is historical context surrounding these works that have influenced the audience's perception of the characters in the story. The Athens when Sophocles lived was a democracy while Thebes in Antigone is not, and the The Reluctant Fundamentalist takes part partially in a world before 9/11 occurred. Both works contain social commentary on their society's transition.
    - - A Raisin in the Sun
        
        Mr. Lindner represents the white community blocking the way for progress for the Younger family who represent the African American community. The Younger family aspires for better living conditions to allow their family upward mobility and bring the possibility for all of them to achieve their dreams. The resolution of the play is the Younger family choosing to move into the white neighborhood, which represents the overcoming of racial barriers to live a good life. The ending has a hopeful mood that provides the audience of a vision of how content things can be without racial pressures. With historical context of redlining, one can even argue that the Younger family was placed in a nonoptimal financial situation to begin with because of the structural racist practices. This provides evidence that racism impedes on certain group's ability to live a fair life and causes unnecessary issues that overshadow their potential happiness in life.
      - The Reluctant Fundamentalist
        
        Through the frame narrative at the beginning of the novel, Mohsin Hamid reveals how people judge one another based on their clothing, their skin color, and their mannerisms with effective second-person narration. Throughout the novel, there is an emphasis on the "outsider" as differences in appearance can lead to unjust differences in treatment. These differences in treatment appear to create a self-fulfilling prophecy. This can be seen when Changez decides to look even more outwardly foreign when he faces discrimination after the events of 9/11. By the end of the novel, Changez even moves back to his home country. Racism, which stemmed from a fear of fundamentalism ultimately made Changez into a "reluctant fundamentalist". This represents how racism molds ones life into something they do not intentionally aspire to be. These stereotype threats and creation of self-fulfilling prophecies have psychological impacts that prevent people from doing things that they would have continued to do otherwise. This shows how the individualized "good life" needs equality of treatment, so people do not feel pressured to act or appear or think in a way that they do not wish to.
        
        Despite being hailed as the "land of the free", America continues to have racism that creates obstacles for people of color. However, these these two works combine to convey the message that there are multiple ways to deal with an unwelcoming environment. In one case, you can choose to stay in the racist environment in order to confront it and progress in life. On the other hand, you can move elsewhere and put yourself in a situation with a higher chance of living a successful life. In either case, both works encourage one to not falter in the face of racism and to not give in. We can see this as Changez amplifies his differences in appearance after 9/11 and Walter rejects Mr. Lindner's money and decides to move his family in.
    - - Life and Debt
        
        While expertly utilizing second person narration, Stephanie Black and Jamaica Kincaid places responsibility on the audience to acknowledge how globalization is creating injustice. There is an exploration of social class inequality on the global scale through the juxtaposition of clips of tourists having fun and narration of the Jamaican natives and Antigua natives going through immense financial struggle. The film and novel portray ignorant happiness from the tourists and saddened mood from the natives, which represents how some people's position in the world can breed ignorance and ultimately impede on other people's potential to live a "good life". As the film mentions multiple times in song-form, "Destruction of the poor is our poverty". Both authors of the works are trying to convey the importance of having equal opportunities, so one group of people are not ignorantly living the good life through the misery of another group. This is exemplified in the novel when the sunny skies of Antigua are able to be enjoyed by the tourist at the cost of drought for the natives. Eventually, the pressure placed on the struggling Jamaica natives creates uprising because there appears to be no other way for them to escape poverty. This gap between first-world and third-world countries allows the first-world countries to deny the third-world countries the ability to build themselves up to be independent. The depiction of the struggling Jamaican and Antigua natives shows how it is imperative to create financial equalities across the world for everyone to have a chance at being able to have the basic necessities to live life freely.
        
        These works use second-person narration to help the audience understand the issues that impede on people living content lives. Second-person narration allows the reader or viewer to partake in perspective taking. This can be helpful when tackling on things such as the negative emotions created by stereotype threat in racism and the guilt presented when tourists have fun at the expense of native people's struggle.
      - Parasite
        
        Another point can be made about social class conflicts when Moon-gwang and Geun-sae threaten the Kim family with job loss after they realize that the Kim family is also of a poor social class. This represents how the social class structure limits the lives of people in the lower class to a zero-sum game where they must each compete to gain monetary power from a rich source. Rather than aspiring to better their situations, both families are pit against each other in a fight for resources and the right to live decent lives. This further emphasizes the necessity of equality in society to secure everyone (not just the winners of lower class conflicts) the possibility of living "good lives".
        
        The juxtaposition against the rich Park family and poverty-stricken Kim family illustrates how social class struggles and separation lead to self-destruction. Throughout the film, the Park family continuously mentions how the unreliable working class brings them misfortune with the old maid "dangerously hiding that she has tuberculosis" and the sleazy driver "having sex in the car with a drug addict". These stereotypes of the poorer working class are proved to not always hold up because there are also people like Kim Ki-Woo (Kim family's son) who is willing to work hard and go to college, if he had the financial means to. This portrays the unfairness of social class stereotypes and reveals how an unlevel playing field can force otherwise hard-working individuals to resort to manipulation to gain more control over their lives. The final scene involves bloodshed and loss for both the Kim and Park family. This represents how rigid social class structure can limit people of lower class from achieving their true potential. The daughter of the Kim family represents lost potential, and the son of the Kim family represents a broken dream.
        
        Both Parasite and Antigone end with multiple deaths as their restrictive societal structures can only resolve integration of conflicting ideas with the erasure of people. There is no room to understand each other as there is only manipulation and bloodshed.
      - A Small Place