Culture

I define culture as the traditions, beliefs, art, history, preferences and apparel of a group of people. When you are born, you grow up learning the culture your parents and the people around you have. The clothing you wear, the food you eat, the music you listen to and what you believe become your culture. However, moving to another area, meeting others and growing older can all change your culture. If you were born on a farm in a small town in Kentucky, you probably have a strong religious background, a certain style of dressing and the food you eat probably isn't that fancy. If you later move to a bigger city to go to college, you probably take on a new culture; one where you dress, eat, and believe differently.

The Runaway

The Runaway, a painting by Norman Rockwell.

Facts:

• The man on the stool is a policeman.
• The waiter is smoking.
• The painting is set in a restaurant.

Claims:

• The little boy is  the runaway.
• The two men are concerned about the boy.
• The dinner is a lonely, uninviting place.

A sudden bold and unexpected question doth many times surprise a man and lay him open- Francis Bacon

When Kino goes pearl diving he finds one large oyster. After opening the oyster, he knows he has found something quite special. The villagers begin to  call the pearl, "the pearl of the world", and soon a lot of people know of the great discovery. All of the fame makes Kino become a little greedy. When he is asked "the unexpected question" of what he will do with his new found wealth he promises a bunch of things. He tells that he will have a proper wedding in the church and send his son to school. At the moment when he is asked he doesn't even know if his son is going to survive the sting.

The pearl starts to go to Kino's head and he begins to get paranoid. He also gets rather greedy. When he tries to sell the pearl in his village he argues that he isn't getting what the pearl is actually worth. He also goes to the extreme killing people over a pearl, but no money is equal to the value of a life. The pearl is turning him into an animal as the book describes him. I was happy when he finally decided to get rid of it like his wife had asked. (He should have been a good husband and listened to the guidance of his wife.) I think that once little Coytito died, Kino had realized what was really important. He first found the pearl after the doctor would not care for Coytito, and now it had lead to the death of his son.

Taking it Slow

So our story begins with a young man named Kino in a small, beach side village. Steinbeck chose to include such detail that I felt as though the book was instead a movie I was watching. The beautiful sunrise outside of the little house Kino and his wife, Juana, shared with their infant son, Coyotito. We then see the details of Kino's morning and everything seems to equal the happy life for Kino. 

When Kino returns inside of his house, he spots a scorpion on the bed that Coyotito is sleeping in. Soon Coyotito spots the scorpion. While Kino is waiting for a good moment to capture the beast, Coytito acts like any young child would. This causes the poor infant to be stung. Why hadn't Kino acted faster? He could have either moved the baby or tried to remove the scorpion. If he tried to move it, maybe he would have been stung rather than the baby.

After they go to the doctor, who says he cannot help, they go to the shore to go diving for pearls. Before Kino and Juana go into the water, they leave baby Coytito on the shore. I don't know if it is a cultural thing or not, but I don't think I would ever leave a baby alone on the shore while I went into the water.

Once a Girl and Now a Lady

Since we left the remarkable cast Alfred Doolittle, Eliza's father, has shown up. He claims that Higgins owes him something for allowing him to have Eliza. This scene is one I've seen too many times. One person opens a package of gum to enjoy and suddenly everyone has claim to it, whether they even care about the person at all.

After deciding to pay him with a five-pound note, Eliza appears in the doorway dressed in Japanese apparel.   Doolittle doesn't even recognize his own daughter. Then in what sense does he even deserve to have Higgins pay him for her.

The once whining, intolerable flower girl has been transformed into a proper lady. She now doesn't make awful sounds like Ah-ah-ah-ow-ow-ow-oo, but instead keeps to small talk such as the weather. She is much  more tolerable, but she still isn't happy. She shows her unhappiness by chucking a slipper at Higgins' face and throwing the jewelry he bought her, then running away to Higgins' mother.

The next day at Higgins' mother's home, Doolittle pops up once again. He now is talking more proper like his daughter. After a while Eliza appears, she is furious with Higgins for calling her an experiment and treating her no better than one. Although she is rather happy with Pickering because he has treated her as a lady the whole time.

After the rest of the cast exit, Higgins and Eliza are alone in the room. They argue for a while until Higgins offers to allow Eliza back into his home and she may marry him or Pickering. She replies that she would never marry him if he offered and instead she will marry Freddy!

By now I definitely understand the title. After further research I found the story from Greek mythology. In the story, a king creates a perfect statue that is turned into a woman, whom he falls in love with. I think this is exactly happened with Higgins. He created Eliza to be a perfect lady and then fell in love with her.