M Butterfly or "The Art of Spinning Amadeus, Joe Turner, all my sons, and Mother Courage into Doubt about thier buried child"

In class Professor Newby asked us how "M Butterfly" was similar to the other plays we watched. I decided to start from the beginning:

Art: The elements of theatricality in both the plays adds to their meaning. In both plays characters stop in the middle of a conversation turn to the audience and speak to them. This adds to the story because you get the first hand feelings of the characters.

Spinning into Butter: Both Spinning into Butter and M Butterfly have another story that is prevalent within the main story. In Spinning into Butter the story of the Little Samba was an older story that had a plot similar to that of what happened in Spinning into Butter. In M Butterfly the story of Madame Butterfly is brought up.

Amadeus: This one is simple, and we talked about it in class, the simple fact that both stories start with the main character talking to the audience then tell their story of how that got to where they were at the start of the play. Also both end with the main character attempting to kill themselves, the difference is that in M Butterfly Rene succeeds.

Joe Turner's Come and Gone: This one is a little more difficult to draw a relation unless you think of the idea of coming and going. In Asia there was a lot of coming and going from Europeans and Americans. One of the ideas is that Rene gets his higher up position because of the movement of people and if he fails he to will be moved back to France.

All My Sons: Both plays have the idea that during non-peace time you need to do whatever is possible to survive, whether moral or not. This is what both Joe and Song have to do, it doesn't matter who it hurts as long as they survive.

Mother Courage: This one is the same as All My Sons.

Doubt: Now I had to absolute hardest time with this one; Just like Sister Aloysius, Chin questions how Song is going about doing her job.

Did I miss any ideas? Or can you think of linking ideas that are better then the ones I came up with?

(NN) What are our obligations to others and how far do our ethical obligations extend?

Like I have said in previous blogs, humans have obligations to them-self first, society second. We are obliged to make our life helpful to the race while keeping up moral obligations and keeping your-self happy.

(NN) What is more fundametal the indiviual or the group?

I think that neither is more fundamental then the other, that human’s need both to survive. Individually if humans didn’t think of them-self first they would not survive but on the flip side humans could not survive with out each other.

(NN) How are the two sexes related?

Sad to say I think that there are genetic qualities that set females apart from males. Males are prone to being more aggressive and violent where as women are prone to beings more gentle and nurturing, in humans as well as many other species on Earth. It is this fundamental difference that has led to the evolution of the thought that females are subordinate to males because women don’t tend to be violent to get what they want; they’re the more empathetic of the two sexes. Just because I believe in this difference does not mean that I think that women should be considered subordinate or be given less rights then men. Women are equal, just different, and should be treated as equals. This is the 21st century and any thoughts that women are subordinate in Western culture is just naïve and slightly barbaric. Yes, the idea women’s equalities is still a newer idea in Western thought but it is not one that should be disregarded for that reason.

(NN) How shall we live?

Every person should live their life doing what they like while helping out society at the same time. Meaning, that one should find a way to make what you like to do into something that will help man-kind. Someone who loves to teach should become a teacher, because not only will it make them happy in life but it will also be good for man-kind because we can’t survive as a race without teachers.

(NN) What can we know?

I think that humans will never know all there is to know about anything. It’s a sad thought but I think that there are some things we should just not know in this form of life. That’s not to say that we should try to learn all we can know. The search for meaning and reason is one of the things that sets humans apart from other animals and it is something we should continue to do

What is our Telos or destiny?

I believe that every person has a point or reason here on Earth, and that is to make a positive difference and a lasting impact on at least one person’s life. People can continue to live after they’ve completed this, or their death may be the thing that makes the impact. Once a person is dead I believe there is an afterlife for us to look forward to. Being Christian I do believe in heaven, but, I do not believe in Hell. The Bible says that God is all forgiving so based off of that he would never condemn someone to Hell.