Being True to You

"There is a time in every man's education when he arrives at the conviction that envy is ignorance; that imitation is suicide; that he must take himself for better, for worse, as his portion..." -Ralph Walter Emerson

I noticed a lot of conversation and similarities between this quote by Emerson, with two of the characters in American Born Chinese, and in the Dove ad we watched today in class. The basic meaning that we came too, for this quote, was that you shouldn't be ashamed of who you are and you should never try to be something or someone you are not. Beauty is within and we need to remember that in order to maintain who we really are. This quote works directly in conversation the a couple characters in American Born Chinese. The first character is a monkey. He doesn't want to be a monkey so he tries so hard to turn himself in to something that is unrealistic. He begins taking on human characteristics, one being wearing shoes. He then tries to become a God, but in the end is buried by rocks by an actual God; the moral being being something you are not never gets you very far. There was another character in American Born Chinese that came to a new school from San Fransisco, but because he is Asian it was assumed he came right from China and many other stereotypes were placed upon him. He was treated poorly and constantly insulted by classmates. Later on, another kid comes from Taiwan and is treated just as badly by his classmates. The boy tries to make friends with the kid from San Fransisco but he is turned down and treated poorly. This shows that the kid from San Fransisco is being someone he is not because he is acting in a way that he thinks his classmates want him to act. He didn't like being treated badly, yet he is doing the same thing to someone else. Eventually he realizes he can be himself and the two become friends. Finally, there is also a conversation with this quote and the dove ad that I noticed. The entire dove ad is about staying true to yourself. It shows an average girl who is literally transformed by makeup and computerization's to become, what looks like a completely different person. The purpose of this ad is to show that even with all the make up and what not it doesn't make the person who they are. We cant look perfect because the perfection we see on billboards isn't even real. It is fake and computerized but it makes us feel like we need to look like that to feel OK about ourselves. All in all, all of these pieces of literature are conversing with each other about the importance of staying true to yourself and that beauty comes from within.