The Polarization Of Power

Emily Schwitzgebel

Ms. Wilson

AP Literature And Composition

13 January 2014

The Polarization Of Power: Synthesis Essay

**Theme: How power or voice (or lack of power or lack of voice) leads to the representation (or misrepresentation) of certain groups-within communities, societies, the world, etc.

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The Polarization of Power

It is extremely dangerous, but also thoroughly rewarding. It is something earned, not carelessly given away. For some the lust is so strong they could not live without it, and for others, it is only a distant longing. Power. In Their Eyes Were Watching God, The Rainbow, Swimming Home, “The New Colossus,” and “The World Is Too Much With Us” (by Zora Neale Hurston, DH Lawrence, Deborah Levy, Emma Lazarus, and William Wordsworth, respectively), there is a constant desire for something better in life. It is natural for people to want what they do not already have, mankind is constantly searching for something greater, (either materialistic or hierarchical); while some would do anything to avoid the intimidating responsibility of power, others go out of their way to search for it: power is polarizing and different communities assign different values to it.

Some people spend their entire lives trying to figure out what it is that they are looking for. Their lives are full of change, because they cannot settle down until they have found their own source of happiness. In Their Eyes Were Watching God, Janie realizes that after several failed relationships what she has been missing is a voice of her own, and the power to share this voice. After taking a step back and reflecting on these relationships, Janie discovered that she was not content to be stepped on and silenced. From this moment on, “her soul crawled out from its hiding place” because she knew that what she wanted was to be treated as an individual with her own voice, not someone else’s (Hurston 128). Voice is equivalent to power, and for Janie, her voice had been kept quiet for too long, leaving her relatively powerless. She quickly became her own person and voice, leaving everyone else to hope “that she might fall to their level some day”, not because she held a position of power, but because she had finally settled down and had found what she wanted all along: a voice (Hurston 2). The Brangwen woman in The Rainbow felt the same way as Janie. She spent years of her life unsure of what it was that made her different from the people she surrounded herself with. Looking at her husband, the woman realized that he wanted something different than she did; “she craved to achieve this higher being”, while he—and all of the other Brangwen men—was perfectly content to never wonder about the things he did not have (Lawrence 56-58). The woman did not want to remain powerless only because she was a woman, and was not satisfied with the life led by the Brangwen men. Instead, “she […] wanted to know” all of the things which “poured unresolved into their veins” (Lawrence 38, 28-29). The Brangwen men did not strive to have anything other than what was handed to them on a silver platter, but the woman wanted more. She very much wanted the opportunity “to be of the fighting host” like the men in her life, and to feel powerful with knowledge (Lawrence 38-39).

 What is more powerful than opportunity? There are two kinds of people in the world: those who seize any opportunity that comes their way, and those who brush them off, taking the things that they have in their life for granted. America is nicknamed ‘The Land of Opportunity’ for those who venture through “the golden door” (Lazarus 14). Opportunity is power. It is an easy transport to something greater in life—a better job, a promotion, a friend, a marriage, a connection, a dream. Every connection made has the capability to help reach a goal, and setting a goal is how people move up in the world and become more and more powerful. Each day, people walk through that door “yearning to breath free” (Lazarus 11) in this land of opportunity. These are the first kinds of people, the ones who seize every opportunity possible. The United States has a reputation of laziness for a reason; there seems to be an abundance of food and money and jobs, when many other countries have scarcely enough to get by. In “The World Is Too Much With Us”, Wordsworth claims that “the world is too much with us” because when we are “getting and spending, we lay waste our powers” (Wordsworth 1, 2). As a democratic community, the United States does not place nearly as much value on power as the people coming to America from Africa, Asia, and Europe. The government has gone to huge efforts to make everyone’s voice heard equally, and when voice is power, United States citizens take this power for granted. People “are out of tune” with the world around them, choosing to ignore certain opportunities even when they are thrown at them, not actually willing to work for the things that they want in life (Wordsworth 8). Those who come from foreign communities, however, utilize every material that is given to them. While those born in the United States tend to be extremely materialistic, foreigners are more hierarchal. Power is not nearly as familiar to them, and so they work for it. Why would they come to the ‘Land of Opportunity’ at all if they were not looking for the chance to have a voice?

The ‘Land of Opportunity’ is simply not enticing to some people. Not everyone is interested in being powerful, and would prefer to share their voice either anonymously or not at all. In Swimming Home, Joe Jacob refused to read the writing of a long-time fan that came to see him because he believed that “to accept her language was to accept that she held him, her reader, in great esteem” and he did not want that kind of power (Levy 83). Joe shied away from all power and responsibility, choosing to share his deep, dark thoughts only in his poetry.  He was scared of what his peers and family might think if they heard him mouth his suicidal thoughts in a place other than on paper, where he was ‘JHJ’, not Joe. JHJ is powerful because he has the ability to share his emotions with his readers. His avid fan, Kitty, told him that “he writes about things [she] often think[s]”, and while the fictional JHJ can share his thoughts, Joe cannot (Levy 48). Joe is miserable with his life because he is powerless; JHJ has a voice, and has all of the power, but Joe just suffers in silence, not allowing the possibility that JHJ is actually him. Janie too, in Their Eyes Were Watching God, often times found that “she didn’t change her mind but she agreed with her mouth” (Hurston 63). Like Joe, Janie did not think that she even had the option to be powerful because she had given all power to her spouse. In her first few relationships, her spouse was her JHJ, and she stayed home, unhappy, with her thoughts. Power can be quite intimidating to some. It comes with a responsibility that not everyone is stable enough--or willing--to take.

There are two sides to everything, and order to get the full story, one must consider both sides. The people walking through the golden door are polar opposites of those living a spoiled American life. Some communities are already accustomed to a high social status, and their people are ravenously materialistic, placing only a small value on the hierarchy of power in their lives. Other communities learn to appreciate the materials they have been given, and would rather place their value on the very little power that they have, choosing to take opportunities as they are passing, and working hard to move up in the social status. The polarization of power leads to a different set of beliefs in each varying communities, keeping humans constantly on the prowl for something nearly unattainable.

Works Cited

Hurston, Zora Neale. Their Eyes Were Watching God: A Novel. New York: Perennial Library, 1990. Print.

Lawrence, D. H. The Rainbow. New York: Modern Library, 1915. N. pag. Print.

Lazarus, Emma. "The New Colossus." N.p., 1883. Poem. 7 Jan. 2014.

Levy, Deborah. Swimming Home: A Novel. New York: Bloomsbury USA, 2012. Print.

Wordsworth, William. "The World Is Too Much With Us." N.p., 1806. Poem. 7 Jan. 2014.