The Storm Reflection

I found the story to be an interesting reversal of fortune for women. It is usually all about the men and their sexual conquests. The main character of this story changes the tables and indulges in her sexual pleasure with an old friend. Of course, adultery is usually frowned upon, but it is obvious that there is a double standard when it comes to the opposite sex. Men will generally be excused from such activity and in some cultures it is even encouraged and revered. Something that is seen in all cultures is the frowning upon promiscuous women. Even worse is infidelity by women, as they are usually required to be the faithful of the two while the men get a pass on most occasions. We discussed the morality of the issue but I think she deserves a little more credit and we should get past the social stigma and misogynistic ways of thinking.

Reflection on Daisy Miller

Adrian Perez Daisy Miller was an interesting story. It is about the relationship of Winterbourne, an American that has lived most of his life in Europe and Daisy, an American girl that comes to Europe. They meet each other in Europe and Winterbourne is interested in Daisy because he is accustomed to the European society and he sees Daisy as something new. However, later Winterbourne does not know what to think about Daisy because he goes back and forth about her being innocent or a basically a tramp because of the way she acts and sees things. Personally I think Winterbourne didn’t need to think much about how was Daisy, he just needed to go with the flow and keep seeing her and knowing her and then make a conclusion about her. Daisy was just acting like she was and I don't think that Winterbourne understood that because he bacame so acustomed to the European society, their rules and the way they think and view other people. I think that he had feelings for her and he did not realize it. In another way, I think that Daisy didn’t understand that she was in another country with different views, culture and social perspective and she needed to act differently and oblique by the social rules and norms, and things would have turned out differently for her at the end. Its obvious that all of this is a learning experience for Winterbourne and is certainly going to affect his life and his future.

Daisy Miller

I personally enjoyed the story, I thought it was an interesting look back at how old society used to behave. Some of these norms may persist to our day in the higher spheres of society, but there is a certain old-fashioned quality to the whole treatment of Daisy. All of the different exchanges had little gems of socio-psychological norms that have been embedded in the way of thinking of each character. It was important for me to note how the Roman Fever plays in the story. These are basically cultural norm that develop and tend to stick because they actually provide a survival benefit to those who adhere to it. No one could explain what the Roman Fever was, only that they could get it at night. That little detail was good enough to probably keeps thousands of people alive. It makes me reflect on most social norms and it ends up showing how it is very hit or miss. Sometimes, the social norms actually have some tangible repercussions in our lives, but others, like believing in Jesus, have absolutely no benefit and are as useful as believing in Santa Claus. Other curious examples of this in Daisy Miller are seen with the over protectiveness of the women in the culture. This also has some survival benefit and it is why it is so ubiquitous in world cultures. This type of social norm protects young women from falling prey to overanxious men who would desert them if they were to get pregnant, as well as avoid sexually transmitted diseases which have been ever present.