Event 4

Awareness

Poems “Theology” by Paul Laurence Dunbar, “Tableau” by Countee Cullen, and novel Frankenstein by Mary Shelly all relate to the information session about mental health awareness. The poems, novel, and talk each respectively deal with the issue of expressing their opinion against the majority. Each work invites the reader or listener to think deeply about the concepts and view it with an open mind.

The speaker in the poem Theology pokes fun at how easily human beings are persuaded into believing a set of rules given to them. The people don’t go against the majority of society by questioning what is right and what is wrong. In the beginning stanza, the speakers seems like a person devoted to religion by starting off the poem by writing “There is a heaven, for ever, day by day, The upward longing of my soul doth tell me so.” But after reading the second stanza, the reader figures out the speaker is not really serious about religion. The speaker seems doubtful about there being a hell. The speaker then says all his neighbors go to hell. 

The speaker in the poem Tableau relays a series of events surrounding to boys each of two different ethnicities. The time period this poem was written in conveyed what life was like living in that era. The union of blacks and whites was still a taboo in the early twentieth century. However, the two boys broke this barrier and decided they if not care about social norms and became friends. This union proves true friendship has no boundaries. The speaker uses phrases such as “Locked arm and in arm”, and words “thunder” and “lightening” to strengthen the idea of this concept. When one thinks of thunder, lightning is sure to come to mind some after and vice versa. The poem also expresses hope for the future that we has human beings can one day stop staring through blinds or gossiping when we see an interracial friendship. We have to ability to change social norms at a young age.

The novel Frankenstein conveys the message that deviation from what is normal will always have a negative effect. The main character Victor was obsessed with knowledge and wanting to learn more. In turn, he created this nasty creature that even he could not bring himself to love. However, the monster and Victor are much alike; both are lonely. But the monster is underestimate greatly by not only his creator but also by the humans. If Victor stayed to get to know his creation, he could have vouched for it to become a part of society. The monster learned how to talk and survive on his own. The problem is that Victor did not want society to look at him differently or judge him. He said nobody would have believed him if he told the secret about his creation. He let society influence his actions.

The information session was about a program called Active Minds to raise the awareness of mental health and educate the audience. Active Minds breaks the barrier of what is normally associated with mental health disorders such as depression or bi polar disorder. Active Minds and Tableau relate to each other through the concept of unity. During the session, a video was about a 19 year old male giving a speech on how he has cope with depression. He said having this disorder taught him the concept of “learning to love ourselves”. The disorder taught him so much, both in a positive and negative. But that is what made him who he is today. Active minds enforces the message behind Frankenstein that not all abnormal things should be classified as bad or wrong. Both the program and book shows the viewer a new light to what mental illness truly is and not all monsters are unintelligent creatures. The events are going against the opinion of the majority group and proving them wrong. Theology relates to Active Minds by coming to terms with one’s own opinion. He uses humor to express his views on how people blindly follow religion.