Ngugi (Blog #4) Annalisa Horine

I think Ngugi wa Thiong'o's short story "Wedding at the Cross" was sad. It was sad because Wariuki, the man that that Miriamu fell in love with was gone. Wariuki, the man that she loved, had turned into Dodge Livingstone.Wariuki did not care what people thought of him, he did what he wanted and cared to please no one. This was the man that Miriamu loved. When he became Dodge Livingstone however, he only cared of what others thought.

Today, in society, most people care too much of what others think of them and let themselves become something that they are not. Like Wariuki, people re-adjust their views and beliefs to match those of others so that they will "fit in". When I was in high school, I knew a girl was overweight. She wanted so badly to be thin like everyone else. She wanted it so bad that she resorted to bulimia. She thought that being thin was the only way to get people to like her. However, all of her friends at the time told her that she was beautiful, and that if people didn't like her the way she was, they weren't worth her time. She didn't care. All she wanted was to be thin like her friends. In the end, all of her friends left her. After she lost weight and became thin, she became a different person, much like Wariuki/ Dodge Livingstone.

I also thought that "Minutes of Glory" was sad. I thought it was sad because all that Beatrice wished was to be loved; she longed to be wanted, and no one wanted her.  Many women today feel like Beatrice, as they want to be loved. Some people go to extreme lengths to achieve this, like my friend that resorted to bulimia. Like Beatrice, my friend wanted to "fit in" with the other girls and get attention. In the end, Beatrice's mind was so twisted in the way that when she had gotten hundreds of dollars and could have started some where new, with a home and been much better off than before, she went to the store and bought herself a new outfit. As a woman, I know that my mind is twisted in this way, to an extent. Some days I'd rather go out and buy myself a new pair of high-heels, when I know that I need a knew pair of gym-shoes. But the heels (that I'll more than likely wear once or twice then completely discard) are much more attractive to me than a pair of boring gym-shoes. While the heels are going to hurt my feet immensely and the gym-shoes are going to keep me comfortable, I go for the heels anyways. This is twisted and irrational. It would be in my best interest to purchase the gym-shoes, but I purchase the heels anyway. I purchase the heels anyway because I would rather look good and be in pain, than feel good and look like a bum. I'm sure that most women feel this way, as they say "pain is beauty".

I would recommend that women who are too worried about their image read this text. I think that it would show them how sad it is that they worry about their clothes and their shows more than they worry about their own well-being. I hope that it would teach them to be more cautious.