Discovering Yourself Through Dreams

Dreaming is an act of communication between our unconscious mind and our conscious mind. It is a kind of bridge that connects our inner thoughts and expresses them in our external journey. Dreams can be defined as those images, activities, and feelings experienced by the mind during sleep. They are also related to a lot of things including creativity, events throughout our life, and emotions. Clinical psychotherapist, Jeffrey Sumber (2011), states that dreams allow us to process information or events that may be painful or confusing in an environment that is at once emotionally real, but physically unreal. 

Emotionally real, but physically unreal: that's the disadvantage (or advantage?) of dreaming. Dreams have an enormous power to connect us with what we have been thinking during the day or what we want at most and it's very difficult to confront reality when we wake up because most of the times we want to continue with it just to know what would happen next. Where these dreams come from? To where these dreams go to? What would happen if you would love the dream? That's the cruel reality. You will wake up and possibly you will remember some details of it, but not at all. Therefore, it is recommended to follow some tips in order to remember the most of it. These tips are simple and very easy to follow: you just have to wake up and write down everything in your mind. EVERYTHING!

As an activity of the Journey in Literature class, I had the opportunity to follow these tips and I got a great outcome. The weird thing in all of this is that I have a lot of short dreams during sleep. It's insane! Doing a retrospective review of the dreams I can remember nowadays, I notices I have dreamed being chased and falling down a couple of times. I have also see the death in my dreams, the desperation, the nature in its tragic point, and love. I'm sure many people desire their dreams to become reality...and I'm one of them. 

Simple Tips for Recalling & Recording Dreams

30 Common Dream Symbols and Their Mysterious Meanings 

Jeffrey Sumber's Interview  

Reaction to "A Small Place" by Jamaica Kincaid

Jamaica Kincaid reveals her experience under the English colonialism and her thoughts about the tourists who visit Antigua. I notices her voice as one mix of feelings: sadness, nostalgia, contempt, and so on. Kincaid talks as an insider of her country; as an expert of it. But from her expert point of view, she classifies the tourists as "an ugly human being". Are the tourists "ugly human beings" just for being tourists? Here is when the author expresses contempt from the tourists.

"An ugly thing, that is what you are when you become a tourist, an ugly, empty thing, a stupid thing, a piece of rubbish pausing here to gaze at this and taste that, and it will never occur to you that the people who inhabit the place in which you have just paused cannot stand you [...]"

Roberts (2008) states that the notion of identity in human society is based on two fundamental factors: the perception of sameness/ difference and instinctiveness of man to be a social being. The perception of sameness/difference implies that those who are perceived as different are treated different. Kincaid expresses Roberts statement of this sameness/difference perception when she says:

"[...] that behind their closed doors they laugh at your strangeness (you do not look the way they look); the physical sight of you does not please them; you have bad manners (it is their custom to eat their food with their hands; you try eating their way, you look silly; you try eating the way you always eat, you look silly); they do not like the way you speak (you have an accent); they collapse helpless from laughter, mimicking the way they imagine you must look as you carry out some everyday bodily function."

It's all about culture. As I stated in one of my last posts, culture is "that complex whole which includes knowledge, belief, art, law, morals, custom, and any other capabilities and habits acquired by man as a member of society." (Tylor, 1871). But culture can be also modify throughout the years and be in constant changes since there are countries which are actually colonies from other countries. Kincaid expresses how she felt living under the English colonialism and how the racism and poverty were noticeable.

That political state Kincaid is narrating us from Antigua let me think and compare it with our Puerto Rican history and political state. Puerto Rico have been since under the power of Spain through the American power nowadays. We have been in constant changes and adaptations since the Spanish until the American colonialism. We have incorporated to our culture many American aspects or festivities. We celebrate their holidays as if it were ours. We introduce a lot of English language to our vocabulary as well as we wrongly translate many English words to Spanish...we have created a 'Spanglish' vocabulary. However, instead we can talk English we have an accent. As Peter Roberts says, "language can sharply distinguish between insider and outsider through difference in accent, idiom structure and word". Therefore, we will always be outsiders in another country with a little knowledge of an insider.

"A Small Place" by Jamaica Kincaid (Section 1 and 2)

"If you go to Antigua as a tourist, this is what you will see." Jamaica Kincaid, writer and novelist, introduces her book letting know the readers about the topic and place of interest: Antigua. Kincaid starts the first section of A Small Place, 1989, giving thoughts and experiences of the tourists who visit Antigua. She recreates the tourist's point of view as one from comments like "What a beautiful island Antigua is" since the airplane descends to land or "Oh, what a marvelous change these bad roads are from the splendid highways I am used to in North America" while the taxi driver is carrying them to their destination at the island. Kincaid describes the tourists as those who are interested in the natural beauty of the island, the beach, the sunny days or the hot and clear air instead of knowing what is really happening in  Antigua.

Between all these tourists' utopia there is an island filled with problems like corruption, drug dealing, poverty, health services, education, criminality, draught and racism. The author keeps narrating the tour on the island while explaining some of these problems stated before. About the corruption, she states the government encouraged the banks to make loans available for cars. Therefore, most of the people drive expensive Japanese cars, but filling the gas tank with the wrong kind of gasoline. About the drug dealing and criminality, she focuses on a mansion which is the house of the drug smuggler and everybody knows about him and what he does for living. As another example, she states about the health services that there's the Holberton Hospital which is staffed with doctors that any Antiguan trusts including the Minister of Health. On the other hand, Kincaid describes the building of the Pigott's School as one which is full of dust and would be easily confused with some latrines. The author also mentions the damage library which it repairs still waiting from the earthquake of 1974.

On the second section of the book, Kincaid focuses on a retrospective view of her life in the old Antigua ruled by England. She mentions the different circumstances in which racism and poverty were very noticeable. "People can recite the name of the first Antiguan (black person) to eat a sandwich at a clubhouse and the day on which it happened; people can recite the name of the first Antiguan (black person) to play golf on the golf course and the day on which the event took place." Jamaica Kincaid expresses her insider view of her birthplace, but I firmly believe every tourist should became an outsider insider by searching information of the place they will going to visit.

"That the native does not like the tourist is not hard to explain. For every native of every place is a potential tourist, and every tourist is a native of somewhere." - Jamaica Kincaid

Tips to Antigua's tourists

My Island, My Home...

What is home? Roberts (2008) described home as "variable and may be the place of birth, place of residence or may be defined by the popular notion 'where the hearts is'. But I think that home is more than just the place of birth, residence or 'where the heart is'. Home is something that we can identify with. It is not just a place, it is OUR place. 

Our island has its unique enchantment as one of the most beautiful places to go on vacations, but it is also more than this. In the research I have done, I found a lot of comments of tourists who came to our island and talked about some of the realities of Puerto Rico. Nevertheless, other tourists made pointless comments about our country. Outsiders have their own opinion; their own perspective. As a Puerto Rican and insider of my country, I have another perspective of what I called home. Some of my points match with the statements of the tourists; others not. As an example of the pointless comments, one tourist wrote: "No mountains near the beach. Not Hawaii, but cool for what it is." I think this tourist never went to beaches like Playa Escondida in Fajardo nor Flamenco Beach in Culebra. These beaches are surrounded by mountains and they are such really beautiful. However, Puerto Rico is more than its beaches and the Old San Juan. The center of Puerto Rico is full of history, fauna, flora, and many interesting places to visit not only as an outsider but as an insider too. Instead most of the tourists emphasizes at the perfect beaches, great food and weather, the one that caught my attention was the comment about our unique culture. "Culture...that complex whole which includes knowledge, belief, art, law, morals, custom, and any other capabilities and habits acquired by man as a member of society." (Tylor, 1871). We identify ourselves with our culture and the language is an important part of it. 

Our island is also recognized for its crime, violence and drug problems and a poor economy. It is also important to establish here we have a lot of poverty and many sceneries in which we can easily contrast between the ones who are economically well instead of those who are not.  However, these problems are not only from our country. There are many countries that are equal to or worse than us. Therefore, I recommend Puerto Rico as a place not only to visit, but also to live. Puerto Rico is our home. Puerto Rico is MY HOME! 

Dead Poets Society

Dead Poets Society shows the story of a group of students at Welton Academy that are influenced in some way by their new professor of English Literature, Mr. John Keating. Some of the students experienced changes in both their internal and external journeys proving that Carpe Diem is something extraordinary. "Seize the day": it's all about it. It's what Carpe Diem is about. Tradition, honor, discipline, and excellence. These were the four pillars that rules the lives of the students at the Academy and the ones they had to overcome by thinking for their own and achieving what they most want to. Throughout the movie, Neil Perry and Todd Anderson are the ones who changes at most.

Neil loves acting, but his father wants him to become a doctor because he has opportunities that he never had at his age. Mr. Perry seems to be a strict, demanding, and serious man who rules the life of his son at all aspects.  As the movie starts, Mr. Perry ordered Neil to quit from an extracurricular activity and Neil didn't have any option instead of followed his father's instructions.  Once Mr. Keating started teaching at the Academy, Neil proposed his friends to make the Dead Poets Society. He started to see the world from other point of view. This is when his internal journey starts to be revealed. As the movie continues, he became excited because he was selected to be the main character of a play. Consequently, he disobeyed his father's rules by didn't quitting from the play, but he was really happy doing what he loves. This act reflects his external journey as a consequence of his internal journey. But there's more. After his performing at the play, Mr. Perry took Neil home and Neil commit suicide with   his father's gun. Does he have some other option? Neil's internal journey led him to commit suicide because he couldn't handle his father's pressure and his father would never let him to study an acting career.

On the other hand, there is Todd Anderson. He seems to be a very shy young who shares room with Neil Perry. Once he started taking class with Mr. Keating, he seems to deal with his situation. Mr. Keating helped him to overcome his biggest fear: let his voice being heard by others. "YAWP!" This is a reflection of his internal journey: overcoming self confidence and leaving shyness behind. Todd's external journey is reflected after the death of Neil. He became sad and he screams out loud. That was the "YAWP!" technique. At the end of the movie, we  see a valiant Todd who decides to be the first to honored Mr. Keating after he leaves Welton Academy. This is his climax; his internal journey reflected at his maximum point in an external way.

We can accept our parents guide us throughout our lives, but we must never accept them to force us to study something we don't like. NEVER! We must trust in ourselves and achieve our goals.

"We don't read and write poetry because it's cute. We read and write poetry because we are members of the human race and the human race is filled with passion. And medicine, law, business, engineering, these are noble pursuits and necessary to sustain life. But poetry, beauty, romance, love, these are what we stay alive for." - Mr. John Keating