commonplacebook912

[commonplacebook912]

I found this picture to have a importance to the subject of how women are judged in society. I felt that all of the hands surrounding the woman figure in this picture symbolize the the problems and inequalities and the woman symbolizes all the victims because of this inequality to woman. This sort of reminded me of one of the annotations in a reading we did in class were it talks about sexual harassment and I felt that this picture connected to it in that way.

[commonplacebook912]

I feel that this image represents how woman are trying to speak out and showing the dignity within themself instead of how some people may view woman differently. This could connect to the reading we read called “Do Muslim Woman Really Need Saving?” By Lila Abu Lughod. There was a part were she discusses how woman were forced to were these veils are sparating both mean and woman. This is why I feel it connects to the theme of how woman are sometimes treated differently in public.

Source: https://quotefancy.com/quote/1718953/Jason-Evert-When-a-woman-veils-her-body-in-modest-clothing-she-is-not-hiding-herself-from

[commonplacebook912]

I found this intriguing because it shows that there are many stories and can all take an effect. I find that this quote has a good significance to want I’m trying to cover because it sort expresses how stories are made for people to know and hear about. This can connect to many of the TED talks and assignments that we reviewed over because it informs us of what could happen and how incidents can effect an individual. They also are there to make the person hearing/reading the story change.

[commonplacebook912]

I felt this post connects to my point of how story telling can effect the way you think and can connect because it discusses how stories can change how people feel as well as how people think based on the story told.

This picture connects to this weeks topic is stories. I believe stories help educate others while making it intreating and making a lasting impact. Personally I will not remember straight up facts but if you tell me a story I can relate too it will stick with me. I wanted to share this picture because even though stories can be a single story and biased it is how someone truly feels and can be more personal. Stories take a lot of effort to craft and can be told for generations. I enjoyed this picture because they’re a lot of working parts for a story which is shown in this picture.

[commonplacebook912]

While there are good stories that influence people, there are also those that are not. While there are good people who exists it there are those who don’t do good, if those type of people make a bad impact on the world and it’s history it drives people to see that group in a bad way. One instance were we could see this take place was in the TED talk by Dalia Mogahed were she discussed how there were Muslim terrorist attacks, that these drove people to think of Muslim people in a negative way. It shows that stories don’t only have a influence on people but also can effect them in a negative or positive way.

[commonplacebook912]

I felt this connected to my topic because it descibes that if you think as your life as a story. I feel that story’s are usually influenced by other stories so if one self is a story than it can influence that person. This sort of connects to the TED talk by Isabel Allende how she discussed about how a “passionate heart” allowed people to change themself from their past lives. I felt this connected because it describes how the effect of someone being told something can cause a person to think differently making themselves able to change.

[commonplacebook912]

When finding this picture I thought it showed a deep meaning behind the influence of stories that people would listen to. It described the different ways that Stories have an influence them and change lives. In many of the different stories we read sort of connects in this way. One of them being “The Danger of a Single Story”. Chimamanda Adichie talks about how people expected her to act, speak, and live a specific way from what they have read or heard from stories. This connects to my topic because it describes stories have a great affect in the way others perceive what is around them.

Source: https://topquestionsandanswers.com/home/2017/10/16/how-to-influence-people-by-unleashing-the-power-of-stories

[commonplacebook912]

I felt this quote shows has a great impact on the way you can view stories as a whole. When people tell stories about experiences such as in most of the TED talks we watched it helps them express it and talk it out. Though at the same time you could be helping others be informed as well as if there are other people that encountered the same event, they will know they are not alone. The impact about these words truly bring an impact on the effect of stories.

[commonplacebook912]

This quote sort of displays in how religious stories can make people believe in a greater mysterious force which is god instead of believing that it can be solved in other ways. You can definitely see this taking place in early parts of the first book we read which was Under the Udala Trees by Chinelo Okparanta were it was mentioned that the main character would pray to god multiple times asking him to end the war. This definitely connects to my overall topic because it displays how when people hear stories about this great entity it can convince them that it exists and would help them in a way. It expresses the influence that the stories have over other people.

[commonplacebook912]

I found this image intriguing mainly do to it description on how storytelling can actually effect the mind and sometimes how it changes how we think. I think this sort of connects to the second book we read for the Student Led Discussion called Three Daughters of Eve by Elif Shafak. How both her mother and father would tell Peri about different stories and it began to change how she thought. Though that same thinking caused her to get confused as well. In these ways I felt that it directly connects to one of the points I’m trying to display.

Source: https://lindathurman.com/2016/05/13/a-story-on-your-mind/

[commonplacebook912]

Common Place Reflection

The power of stories and the view of society have both had impacts during everyone’s lifetime. Throughout the course there were many subjects and themes that we reviewed. I found the material we covered to be very intriguing and throughout our time in class I was able to spot a few key themes that I thought I could talk about throughout the course. Two of them being the influence of stories and their connection to people as well as how women are sometimes skeptically seen in society. There are many readings we did that surrounded these topics such as the main texts we read, many of the assignments, and TED talks that we were assigned throughout the semester.

One of the big questions I asked myself while writing my commonplace book was how stories would influence and change people’s lives. When taking this into consideration I found some key quotes along with some pictures that gave me a more keen understanding of this question then I already knew and it helped me connect to parts of the semester. One of the posts I made with the picture that says “how storytelling affects the brain” connects to the main character Peri of the book Three Daughters of Eve written by Elif Shafak. Stories often would affect the way a person feels and thinks which was a mindset that the character in the story felt. She would be told by her mother and father about contradictions of how to view God. The father saying she shouldn't believe what she can’t see herself and her mother declaring that God is real and that they should believe in him. Wanting to please both parents she began to have mixed thoughts of what to believe. This is one of the examples where the idea of the influence of others' stories can change how a person thinks. It's because of both sides' influence that causes Peri to have conflicting thoughts. Another time that a situation in one of the books came up on this topic was in one of my posts where I have an image from BibleVerseImages.com. Situations connecting to this subject appear in the book Under the Udala Trees by Chinelo Okparanta. This is seen in the time of war, where the main character's mother would tell her that they should continue praying to God because He will eventually answer their call. It was the time of war and the daughter needed something to hold on to during the tough time which caused her to latch on to the thought of a greater being that would answer her wish. It caused her to begin to believe this idea so she would continue to pray every day hoping for the war to end. I feel this connects to the idea of influence of stories because if someone is told something enough and the surrounding encourages that thought it will convince that person to start believing the same way.  

Besides the books there are a few times where I have posts on TED talks that are relative to this idea. One of my posts with a quote by Iyanla Vanzant I talk about how many of the TED talks affect the way we live our lives through the stories of others. It connects in this way because many of the people who host these talks discuss life experiences and show how they changed. By sharing the stories between ourselves and others it helps us think of each other and helps us be more aware of incidents around us. I feel this connects in a way because each other's story would influence the way we think and help us reform ourselves from the influence of other experiences. Another post I made that connects to this subject is the picture that has a checklist. I feel that this connects to one of the TED talks we watched called “The Dangers of a Single Story” by Chimamanda Adichie through her discussion on how people expected her and other people of her same ethnic group to act a certain way because of stories people heard about her place of origin and appearance. By listening to stories about different places or different types of people I believe it would drive others to believe that if it is stated in a text or an interesting tale, it would cause them to agree and trust that what is said is correct. Another post that I feel connects to this topic is the one where it says “Change your story, change your life”. I mainly thought this was important because it symbolized how one hearing a story can change one's life. This is connected to a TED talk by Isabel Allende where she talks about how a passionate heart is important and how many of the other people who also carried flags during the Olympics with her had some tough backstories about their past. It shows how hearing something that encourages oneself can make someone drive and change themselves. When thinking about another post I decided to make one with a  picture where a girl is disappearing. I discuss how stories can have impacts in a positive and negative way and how it connects to what Dalia Mogahed said when giving her TED talk. She discussed how incidents that happened in the past caused problems because of how people looked at Muslims after terrorist attacks. I felt it displayed how actions of a group of people can affect the way others would look at a greater group of individuals. The impact of stories does not only bring change in positive ways but also negative as well. For one of the posts I decided to reblog another student's daily Common book weekly entry. I felt it mentioned important parts about the influence of stories. How when hearing a story it can allow people to make a personal connection to themself making the story more than what it already is - explaining how a single story can change a person's way of thought. In the post with the quote by Ann Curry, it talks about why stories get created and the effect of them. This subject connects to many of the assignments and TED talks that we covered in class. In the assignments they tell stories to make people have different views on specific ideas and stories are also told to inform other people about experiences or incidents in the past. These stories change the ideas of those who don't like to speak out. Stories do have an impactful effect on people's life, however there are still many other factors that have an effect as well.

While there are many parts of the readings we did that relate to the influence of story’s I also saw other subjects such as how people would view women in society. I started writing this subject with a post that has a quote related to women’s veils. When writing the post it reminded me of the annotation we did on the story of “Do Muslim Woman Really Need Saving” by Lila Abu Lughod. In the story she described that when she visited Afghanistan she noticed women were forced to wear a burqa to cover their bodies so men wouldn’t feel attracted to them. It was this big part that made me believe it connected to the topic of women being treated differently in public by having to do something instead of the other way around. While veils are one of the ways women are held to a different standard, there is another example I made where it shows multiple hands surrounding a woman. In the assignment for annotating “Mapping The Margins'' the author discusses the differences and how people are seen based on gender, color, and class. I felt that it would connect to the subject through the bias she talks about how gender is a key factor in social rules. The skeptical view of women plays a bigger role in society than people think.

Overall the two themes of the influence of stories and how women can be viewed in society can be seen in many sources. While these themes usually appear in readings or speeches that you might hear, they also appear in media such as video games or TV. There are many different types of things that can influence the way people think as well as how they view different ideas.