#perspective 2

Perspective 2 Full cup; empty mind. BJG(Blair Gaulton)Feb 2018

To read the first poem in this series please click on Perspective 1

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It is key for individuals to find and build upon what they came from, including their true interests. From a psychologist's perspective, it makes sense that most of Rise of the Guardians “involves Jack Frost’s efforts to find his centre by reclaiming a repressed and traumatic childhood past. As Jack himself puts it at one point, “How can I know who I am until I find out who I was?”” (Dykstra 707). “[R]eclaiming” typically means to recover or take something that is lost, and in this case it refers to Jack’s memories and history. However, in American society and culture, it is also used for “reclaiming” slurs or cultural narratives. So, by “reclaiming” a word or history, one is able to take away power from harmful words or regain their cultural importance. I argue that this cultural meaning connects to Toothiana, because she can be empowered by “reclaiming” her history. Just as Jack cannot move forward without recovering his memories, Toothiana is incomplete without her South Asian heritage. Using introspection goes beyond what is “repressed” or unconsciously hidden, to include what we may choose to ignore or hide. To find your centre or find yourself, psychologists like Dykstra argue that you must accept both what you’ve forgotten and what you are not proud of, despite any negative feelings or reactions in the past.  When talking about Stephen King, Dykstra argues the necessity of “acknowledging and attending to his centre—allowing himself to be interested in what interests him despite the shame… to become… a guardian of his childhood wonder, hope, memories, and dreams” (709). There is a distinction between “acknowledging” and “attending to his center,” which I argue shows us that it is not enough to do one action or the other. The first step is to stop denying the passions and characteristics within, and the next is to “attend” to them or take care of them. Furthermore, his use of an em dash structures the sentence as a definition instead of a cause-and-effect relationship. Dykstra defines “attending to [one’s] center” as “allowing [one]self” to care about their real passions, which then provides an emphasis for taking care of one’s centre. He also uses “to become” instead of “[and] become[s],” which shows that these are not two separate actions. So, accepting “what interests him” is what makes King “a guardian” of his childhood values.

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Reflecting on one’s past, even if it is difficult to unpack, can create a connecting thread between people who have experienced similar situations. Toothiana is established to have an attachment to her childhood memories because of her parents. Therefore, the removal of Toothiana’s past in the movie robs her of a chance of this connection. In his paper, Dykstra concludes that if “one finds the courage to remember one’s story as an individual [and]… allows oneself to be drawn toward the pain, to the things one’s family would not talk about—then one [can]… feel more deeply akin to others” (716). Dykstra acknowledges how hard it is to do this level of introspection by using the word “courage.” The “courage” needed is amplified by the fact that the “pain” is defined as something that is taboo within one’s family. So, in exploring this “pain,” individuals are breaking the cycle of unpacking something their relatives could not. Additionally, while the word “akin” may mean similar to, it also has a linguistic connection to the word kin, or family. This creates an interesting relationship where exploring “things one’s family would not talk about” can result in finding or strengthening this kinship elsewhere. So, reflecting on one’s past and including the painful parts can reveal a sense of kinship with those around you. After her parents’ passing, Toothiana finds they have saved her baby teeth, and tell her in a letter that when she “hold[s the teeth] tightly, [she] will remember that which [she] need[s]– a memory of happy days, or of deepest hopes, or even of [her family] in better times” (Joyce 93). This letter transforms memory from a passive thing to reflect on to an active tool that can help Toothiana empower herself. Joyce specifically points out “happy days,” “hopes,” and family as what she “need[s]” to get her through difficult times, showing that these are what she can use to find and preserve her identity. And, the word “deepest” can mean one’s most sincere or true hopes, or hopes that are “deep” within oneself and are hard to realise. This pairing of true but hidden ties back to Dykstra’s earlier points about the importance of finding one’s genuine callings. The letter that Toothiana finds from her parents is inside a box carved from a ruby, which was also part of how her mother and father met (Joyce 93).

Perspective 2 Dirtiness scared about the clean virus. BJG(Blair Gaulton)May 2018