What is beauty? Many people have sought the answer to this question over the period of time we have to come know as the human existence. Is anyone really qualified to answer this question? When perception is such an abstract thing, each individual’s tastes and opinions so different from the next, how is it possible to compile a concrete description on what it is so many people wish to achieve? There are many different ideas as to how people can interpret the concept of beauty.

Beauty occurs in different places. For instance, beauty can occur in trends, though, according to Jean Godfrey-June, author of the essay Why I Wear Purple Lipstick, “[b]euty trends are rarely about being beautiful.” In saying this, she makes a point about how what people see as beautiful is often what they’re told is beautiful. If being different, making your own style, to trying to rise above others, is beautiful, people will see it as so.

Beauty can also be a negative thing. When beauty is forced upon a society, especially that of a particular form of beauty, it can stress the society into a negative outlook. For example, in today’s modern society, being thin is being beautiful. Being blonde is being beautiful. For women, having a large bust size and a small waist is beautiful. For men, muscles and height are beautiful. But how many people can actually live up to these standards? Alex Kuczynski, her book Beauty Junkies, quotes Dr. Peter B. Fodor, who believes that, “[t]he look is cookie-cutter beauty.” Nearly every person in modern day society strives to be a member of this cookie-cutter world.

Beauty, like art, is an objective thing. Every person has a different perspective on the world. With so many different people in the world, there has been so many different interpretations of what the word beauty means. Nancy Etcoff states that, “[l]ooking to the object of beauty, we confront centuries of struggle to capture beauty’s essence.” By trying to pinpoint one particular definition of beauty, people have forced themselves into a struggle to find the answer to an unanswerable question.

I believe that beauty should be, as one wants it to be. Uninfluenced, and untainted by society, beauty should be however one feels when they come across something they truly love. I suppose the question will never be answered, exactly what beauty is, but people will always continue to form their opinions and strive to be whatever it is that beauty may be.

Stereotypes are horribly common in modern culture. Everywhere you go and with everything you see there is some time of predetermined notion about the subject. The idea of pink think could honestly be coined to anything if you replaced the term 'pink' with just about anything you could think of, such as 'chick think', 'surfer think', and 'geek think'. All of which give a certain image and idea of the subjects which were brought up.

For example, what would be thought of with the term 'goth think'? Perhaps black hair, drugs, anger, and anarchy might arise in the mind. I believe these are common stereotypes of "goths". "Goths" are usually found listeing to music, wearing black, and alone, to add more to the stereotype. Variations might occur in the different opinions of the stereotypes, but typically are very similar.

Could stereotypes go as far as to convict someone of murder? Apparently so. In Memphis, Tennessee, three teenage boys, who fit the typical description for the 'goth' stereotype were accused of murdering three eight-year-old boys. While there was evidence pointing towards other suspects, what did the detectives use as evidence against the teenagers? "Although there was no physical evidence, murder weapon, motive, or connection to the victims, the prosecution pathetically resorted to presenting black hair and clothing, heavy metal t-shirts, and Stephen King novels as proof that the boys were sacrificed in a satanic cult ritual." One of the boys was sentenced to death, another life in jail without parole, and the life plus forty years in jail.

Whether the idea be something seemingly harmless such as 'pink think', or something as horrid as the perceptions and actions regarding 'goth think', stereotyping is at least an inconvenience to most people, and are atrocious at best. If we could see people for who they were, and not for what stereotype they fit into, the world could be a more personal place, instead of the cold and separated world we live in today.

The Giver

For my book review, I chose a book I’d long since heard about, but never got the chance to actually pick up. The Giver by Lois Lowry has been a favourite of many of my friends for quite some time. I’d heard bits and pieces of the plot, and decided it’d be a book I’d like. Boy was I right. I finished the book in three hours, and read it twice more during the vacation. I would definitely say that it’s ranked in my top two favourite books, second only to Harry Potter of course.

In a society completely void of individuality, people’s lives are chosen for them. From the parents they will have, to when their wardrobe and recreation activities are changed, whom they’ll marry, and what their careers will be. Jonas is one of these mundane kids, living his mundane. He does not know happiness, he does not know sadness. He knows the words, but not the real meanings. Never would Jonas think he was special, or different than anyone else. He never had been before. But when his name is skipped at the The Ceremony of the Twelves, the most important ceremony there is, his life is flipped upside down.

His world changing rapidly, with new rules and new people, Jonas embarks on a journey of self-discovery, and a discovery of what the world really is. What he will find is up to you to find out.