I think it is
impossible to really know a person. We might think we do if that person is
really close to us; a sister, a best friend, a boyfriend or girlfriend, husband
or wife, etc. You might share big secrets and confide in this one special
person things you would never tell anyone. Even in that case that person will
never fully know you. For starters it is really hard to even know and
understand ourselves, let alone fully understand someone else. Each person has to
have their own inside world, their own personal feelings and thoughts that they
would never reveal to anyone. I really think that if we were an open book, even
if it was to only one person, we would loose our identity. We tend to make our own
personal image of a person, like Morrison told in his story. An image that is
convenient to us and that will serve a purpose in our lives. That is why we get
disappointed when we realize that a person is not what we thought. Although
that person never lied to us. We lied to ourselves, wanting that one person to
be as we wanted them to be. I
agree with Morrison when he said “an image can determine not only what we know
and feel but also what we believe is worth knowing about what we feel”. It is very true that we rely on images
all the time. We even think we might know a person just by looking at them. The
truth is that no image, no body language or even experiences could make us
really know a person at all.
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteI agree that you truly cannot know another person fully, I mean sure they can tell you but, they really would only tell you what they want, and you would not be getting the whole story. Granted people say all the time that "I don't keep anything from anyone...I'm an open book." That is not true. Sure the book maybe open, but that book contains a lot of puzzles and hidden messages. In other words someone may tell you the truth, but they are not sharing with you the whole truth. As humans in society we have this thing where we judge people on superficial things, whether it be hair, shoes, their eyes, the backpack they have on, the sunglasses they are wearing, just looks an appearance all together. No one can deny this, we do not go a day without judging another, it does not matter who you are. To those people who say "I do not judge people." Stop lying, because yes, you very much do. By this judgment we think we know these people, but in actuality we have no idea who they are, or where they came from, or what they have been through. We can think we know someone like Morrison did, where she imagined a whole friendship with this fisher woman, which she thought was her neighbor, thinking that she knew this women, she created a friendship off of false hopes, and was devastated when she learned that she had been lied to. The bottom line is, no matter how much someone tells you about themselves or how much you think you know about this person, you can never fully and truly know them.
ReplyDeleteNo. I strongly believe that we are incapable of fully knowing another person. Our thoughts and our actions are too distinct things and do not always sync with each other. One reason I believe we cannot fully know someone is because of their intentions. I have known a certain person for over five years and have just came to find out their intentions towards me and how blinded I was. A person only tells you who they want you to believe them to be. In the reading “Strangers” by Toni Morrison, the woman tells him what she wants him to believe about her, that she has permission to be there and that she visits frequently. Throughout the story he longs to know this woman better and begin to mold a friendship. The things he didn’t know about her are never to be found because of the lies she initially told. All in all I do not believe we can fully know someone. I firmly think that people change over time with experience and though it may not always be a change for the better, it is still a change. Therefore how can we truly know someone if they are consistently changing, that is the million dollar question.
ReplyDeleteI agree with the belief we can never entirely be familiar with another person. This is due to obvious barriers that stem from people not being completely honest with others, but also not being honest with themselves. As we discussed when talking about our sense of self, we tend to justify our actions. We downplay or entirely disregard mistakes and emphasize accomplishments. One could argue our perspective of ourselves is warped. We project these biases when presenting ourselves to others who in turn would be harsher in judgment if aware of our actions. As well, as distorted perspective of us and double standards when judging others, there’s the obstacle of communication. There’s too much margin when interpreting someone’s ideas. No two people are going to confer in totality with an idea. It’s one thing to agree but another to feel the same emotion, picture the same things, or gather the same conclusion as to past experiences relating to future implications. We can’t know someone to the most thorough extent when not only are we flattering to say the least when presenting ourselves in terms of our character, but even when we are true to our words no one else will accept them and grasp them in the same fashion. We can only attempt in words to convey our motives, outlooks, and desires, but words are an unreliable means of carrying sentiment. Our true meaning may be lost in subjective connotation, syntax, and diction cluttered with cultural, educational, and socioeconomic preconceptions.
ReplyDelete