Man Without a Face Essay (Homework Assignment #9)

Write a 750 word blog post on the following topic: "How does Norstadt arrive at the moral certainty that he can trust McLeod despite the fear and doubt that is raised in him by the rumors? Why is it so important for McLeod that Norstadt not "cheat" on the problem of using his freedom to decide on his own whether the rumors are true?" In addition, you may also write about any other interesting questions or thoughts that you had on the movie.

                At the beginning of the movie, Man without a Face, Norstadt and his family are on ferry that is taking them to their summer vacation home. On this ferry boat is where Norstadt has his first encounter with McLeod. Norstadt was angry that his mother would not let him go to military school so in revenge he goes down to the lower deck and slashes his mother’s car’s tires. Norstadt did not even realize that McLeod was watching him but felt an eerie stare on his back after his anger towards his mother subside. He looked back and there was McLeod. Norstadt was scared then, he only knew McLeod by the rumors and false accusations that were said by everyone who lived in that town.

                When at their vacation home, Norstadt opts out to join his family going to the beach and decides to study for the entrance exam for the military academy.  He can’t focus on his books and decides to join his friends when they go out to the other side of the town where McLeod’s house is located and maybe get some studying down out there instead. His buddies are making fun of McLeod but Norstadt doesn’t join in. Norstadt actually defends him and says that they don’t really know for sure if he’s that. That he saw him on the ferry boat and seemed like he was just lonely. The boys make fun of him and talk about going to see some girls when McLeod’s vicious dog arrives and barks them off the shore. The quickly scurry to the boat when Norstadt forget his books on the shore. He asks the boys to turn around but refused. When they got back to the main part of town, Norstadt grabs his bike and gets over to McLeod’s as quickly as he can. This is when his relationship with McLeod really begins.

                Norstadt starts talking to McLeod and finds out that he’s a teacher. A teacher/tutor that can help him pass the entrance exam for the military academy. At first, McLeod is weary about teaching him again and tells Norstadt no, that he needs to find someone else. But after a few days of Norstadt’s persistent prodding, McLeod agrees. This first initial spark is how their relationship starts. Norstadt doesn’t want to believe the accusations against McLeod and makes it a point to judge himself if all the rumors were true. And he really needs a teacher if he wants to get into the military academy so he had no choice but to trust him a little. After a few weeks of Norstadt going to McLeod’s for tutoring, their relationship begins to get stronger and stronger. They begin to share quality time together thus strengthening Norstadt’s moral certainty about McLeod. That he’s not the bad man that everyone thinks he is, he’s actually a nice and dependable guy. Norstadt took that risk of him actually being the molester and murdered that everyone else in town thought he was. Norstadt wasn’t afraid of him, he treated him like a human being and didn’t let the rumors get in the way. Their teacher-student relationship took off and soon Norstadt enjoyed the lessons McLeod taught him and would rather spend his days with him then his family at home. They became good friends near the end of the movie and throughout the whole movie, Norstadt never doubted McLeod’s innocence. He let their relationship freely grow and bond together. It was never forced on either side of the relationship. Their relationship started like any long-lasting friendship would. That’s why it was important for Norstadt to figure out if McLeod was who everyone thought he was for himself, their relationship would have never have been strong and McLeod wanted to know if Norstadt truly wanted to know the real McLeod. Through the good and the bad, Norstadt managed to look past all of the negativity associated with McLeod and see the true person that he really is. 

What does it mean to know something? (Homework Assignment #8)

To know something means to be able to say able to say what you know about that thing and be able to prove that you do. You are able to say absolutely everything you know on the subject and can back yourself up with evidence either from your own experience or just prior knowledge. The definition of knowledge is the fact or condition of knowing something with familiarity gained through experience or association. It is impossible to say that you know everything about everything on the planet. You cannot truly know everything unless by the definition that you have experienced it. Like a man cannot say that he knows about being pregnant, he may know what his wife tells him about it but he does not truly know what it feels like himself and never will. He can read books about pregnancy and interview pregnant women and he cannot deny that he knows about pregnancy through those sources but by definition he does not truly have the knowledge about it. It’s hard to define what knowledge or the act of knowing really is but you just have to have the experience with the subject matter. That is what makes knowing something real, experience.

Cathedral Questions (Homework Assignment #7)

                The narrator’s wife was anticipating a visit from an old friend named Robert who is blind. Her husband, the narrator, is jealous that Robert is getting all of the attention of his wife. He makes it his duty when Robert comes to visit to let his wife know that he’s jealous and that he doesn’t appreciate her doing that to him. But during Robert’s visit, the narrator begins to have sympathy for him and actually befriends him.

1.       Why was the narrator not looking forward to the visit of the blind man? What do his feelings reveal about his character?

a.       The Narrator was not looking forward to the visit of the blind man because he knew how much his wife liked his company over his own and began to feel jealous about that. His feelings about Robert reveal that his character isn’t very open-minded and is selfish. He doesn’t want any of the attention of his wife to go anywhere but him and notices that Robert makes her happy and he doesn’t want him to. The narrator wants to be the only one in his wife’s life that makes her happy.

2.       Is it possible to read the experience the narrator’s wife had of Robert touching her face as an experience of being “seen” by him? How is her writing of poetry related to her desire to be seen? How does her attempted suicide also relate to her desire to be seen?

a.       It is possible to read the experience the narrator’s wife had of Robert touching her face as an experience of being “seen” by him. Since Robert couldn’t physically see, feeling the texture and shape of objects is the next best thing for him to sort of visualize an image in his head of what it could look like based on how it felt. Her writing of poetry is related to her desire to be seen because poetry is a way of expressing herself. Her attempted suicide is cry for help, a cry for everyone to pay attention to her because she feels like no one cares.

3.       What does it mean to receive another’s friend? Consider: “‘If you love me,’ she said, ‘you can do this for me. If you don’t love me, okay. But if you had a friend, any friend, and the friend came to visit, I’d make him feel comfortable’” (359).

a.       To receive another’s friend is to be friendly and accepting towards them. Don’t push them over and ignore them because you don’t want to be friends with them when you don’t even know the person. In the story, the narrator’s wife just wants her husband to be accepting of Robert because he means a lot to her.

4.       Consider page 360. Contrary to the narrator’s response of pity and disgust, do you think that Robert “saw” Beulah? What does it mean, more deeply, to see and be seen?

a.       Robert did “see” Beulah. Beulah was everything to him and because he couldn’t really base his love off of looks. He truly loved her for who she was as a person. He understood her like no one else could have because he didn’t have the distraction of how she looked to get in the way of his love for her. That is what it means to be truly see someone, to be able to connect with them because how they think and what their personality is like. Vice versa to be truly seen by another person.

5.       Why do the characters smoke pot? What does it reveal of their desire?

a.       The characters smoke pot because there was a lull in the conversation and one of them suggested they do. It reveals that their desire is based on how happy they feel because of the pot they smoked. The drug provides them with a temporary high and they feed off that high to feel happy because they think that’s the only way they can ever feel happy.

6.       “In the olden days, God was an important part of everyone’s life. You could tell this from their cathedral-building” (372). What do churches reveal about what the culture thinks about God? Why?

a.       Churches tell us especially in homilies that the media is controlling everything, controlling what everyone wants and needs because of commercials and advertisements that are plastered everywhere we look. The church tells us that the media is getting God out of the picture completely because it’s true and we sometimes look past that and put our faith in God on the back burner.

7.       Why does the narrator have difficulty describing a cathedral? What does he see with his eyes closed at the close of the story? Why?  

a.       The narrator has difficultly describing a cathedral because he doesn’t know exactly what to say to Robert because he’s blind and hasn’t ever seen a cathedral before in his life. So how could the narrator be descriptive of a building to person who has never seen what one in reality. When he closes his eyes at the end of the story he sees what Robert is seeing. He is finally understand the true meaning of life and opens his eyes to the world that surrounds him.