"Oh Yeah?! Well I only have HALF a backside so you can go and-"

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(This is Abigail Brock)

As we are all WELL aware of, chapters 10-12 are.....um....interesting.  However, during the reading of these..colorful..chapters, I wondered what the point of it was. Yes, I understand Voltaire included the pervy content for whatever reason he had but I'm talking about the reason it was all said in the first place.  The Old Woman began teling her story because Cunegonde believed that she, herself, had suffered more than the Old Woman had.  So basically they're trying to one-up each other's misfortunes.  We do this all the time, but have you ever thought why?  Why would you want to win the contest of who has it worse off? People get into heated debates about this stuff like it's a contest and it's just like, "Congratulations we've tallied the scores and your day/life/circumstance is officially the most miserable, you win".

??????

I'm not saying that I have'nt done this before (because I certaintly have) but I've never asked myself why I did.  Is it for pity? Sympathy? Because it definately Isn't for glory, no one would actually want the worst misfortunes...or would they?
What are your thoughts?

I commented on Will's and Sophie's post.

Comments

  1. Sophia ColbertSeptember 25, 2017 at 3:39 PM

    I think we do this as a strange way of bragging. For some reason, if you have more exams this week than I do, you are suddenly tougher, more important, or more deserving of an award than I am. Congratulations, you won the award of wanting attention! Honestly, it is a strange habit and I cannot give a good answer of why we do this.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Zelda PeachSeptember 25, 2017 at 6:33 PM

    I think it has something to do with the fact that we see it as almost a competition for other people's pity and attention. Almost like, "Oh no you people shouldn't feel bad for that person, feel bad for me instead because...." It's like we want to win at everything we do so badly that we don't even pay attention to what it is we are winning; which in this case is attention and pity. However, like my mother has always said, "if children can't get good attention they will seek bad attention, because bad attention is better than no attention at all." Maybe we just like the attention we get from people feeling sorry for us.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Ty GoramSeptember 25, 2017 at 8:30 PM

    I always found it very rude when people one up each other (or try) with how sick they are. You can't understand their experiences, you're not them. Everyone experiences things differently, yeah?

    ReplyDelete
  4. Michael TurnerSeptember 25, 2017 at 10:36 PM

    In some ways I can see where this messed up competition takes place. At the same time, perhaps the old woman told her dread story to show Cunegonde that things could be worse and to be thankful that they are not.

    ReplyDelete

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