Shambhavi's Shells

      As this week's class discussion dived into the reason behind using polite phrases and indirect speech, I realized how important it was to communicate with others using respectful speech.      As someone who values speaking to others respectfully and politely, I always felt distasteful towards how the bare English language is structured. Unlike many other languages such as French, Italian, Spanish, Korean, or the many Indian languages, the English language lacks the formal conjugation for the second person pronoun "you".          Personally, this missing formal conjugation makes communicating with others, especially those older than you, difficult.      I've been exposed to multiple different languages other than English that use a formal conjugation, and if I happen to make a slight mistake and refer to someone older than me with the informal "you", I might as well give up trying to build a good r...

       While reading The Clan of One-Breasted Women, I encountered a quote that changed my perspective on the common but tragic event of death.     Williams described her experience with watching women from her family die of cancer in a perspective that I could never imagine.  " In the end, I witnessed their last peaceful breaths, becoming a midwife to the rebirth of their souls."     Throughout my life, although I've never been through the same experiences as Williams, I have never thought of death as a "rebirth" of any kind. The way I anticipate most of us would describe death is by saying "we lost someone" which is why Williams perspective shocked me.  The entire line is written from a perspective that was foreign to me. Being a witness of death is described as being a “midwife”, someone who witnesses birth.      This line really captivated me. It makes the pain and suffering that the women in her family...

     Disney, the entertainment company geared towards all ages, particularly younger children, is loved by everyone, but one thing I couldn't help but notice was their changes in how women are portrayed and their new roles in movies.      Those from my generation, the early 2000's, grew up watching Disney princess movies like Cinderella, Snow White, Aladdin, The Little Mermaid, Sleeping Beauty, and so on. The problem with most of these stories is the overused damsel in distress trope.      Ever since I was little I always wondered why the princess needed to be saved by the prince, or why she would give everything up just to be with him. Movies like The Little Mermaid, where Ariel gives up everything including her voice, or Snow White, where the Prince's kiss saves her, had me confused. These movies are usually viewed by a younger audience whose perceptions can easily be changed. If a young girl grows up watching weak female leads ne...