Lenses evolving

Using the different lenses to read Kate Chopin’s piece, “The Story of an Hour,” was the first time I’d ever done that formally. At first, I was disappointed that I didn’t get a set of lenses that I was more comfortable using to analyze but as more of the prep time progressed, it seemed less challenging. To find Chopin’s own background as a writer growing up in a female-centered household with a father who died in an accident similar to Mr. Mallard’s seemed to add so much more significance to the text. And while I see her history now as a huge “psychological” influence on her work, I realize that other groups (that I haven’t listened to yet) may see their own assigned lenses as the biggest influences.

Looking through a specific lens without ever departing from them is a universal issue. It feeds into our biases and skews our worldviews without any deeper critical thinking. I don’t mean to downplay or oversimplify grave issues ingrained in American society because you can’t rectify systematic problems with individual actions1 but I do believe fostering a better understanding of one another is probably a good place to start.

The conversations revolving around religion I have with my younger sister are always enlightening and educational (of course I’ll never admit this to her). The fact that we bring polar opposite perspectives to the table even after being raised together just further shows me how many different stories I have yet to know. I reached the same conclusion after listening to a friend earlier this year share their take on lower-income American families and the lack of class mobility. Or even watching YouTube channels like Jubilee. I get a peek through the lenses of the people around me and get a reminder that everyone is a product of their varied experiences.

If all stories are really just one story retold in many different ways, I’ll have to keep searching for more and more until I have a more complete (but still evolving) worldview.

1https://www.futurity.org/systemic-racism-2387952/