Saturday, November 17, 2018
‘Tis the Season for Coal??
In Canto VII we read and explored the sinners classified under Avarice and their appropriate punishment of fighting with boulders on their chests. This makes sense as during their life they wished to be weighed down by this meaningless currency, so their punishment of having boulders to their chest shows the real effect something so meaningless can weigh down on the heart. As we were discussing this in class, I immediately thought of the holiday-appropriate advice all children were told of “Don’t be on Santa’s naughty list or you will get coal in your stocking!” This directly relates to the principle of those greedy for material things could have a useless weight as a “punishment” if they do not have the correct behavior and gratitude concerning something that can easily corrupt you. Hopefully, everyone is on Santa’s nice list this year ;)
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3 comments:
This is a really good way to look at things, Farah. Naming myself one of the biggest Christmas lovers in the class, I can definitely agree with your sentiment of the significance of coal as a punishment to those on the naughty list. Reading your post, however, made me realize an interesting thought about the festive concept.
As you said, those who lead a greedy and materialistic lifestyle would be the ones on the naughty list and therefore the ones getting coal in their stocking. However, is this whole "coal in the stocking" ploy is the motive for staying off the naughty list, doesn't that still make us greedy and materialistic?
I've typed this thought a million ways and I'm still a little confused, so sorry if you are too.
But my point is if we are just trying to stay on the nice list, purely out of the drive to still get good presents on Christmas, how does that make us any better than the ones on the naughty list. Aren't we still being materialistic if the only reason we're being good is to receive good presents back instead of dirty gross coal?
No, you are 100% correct, I thought the same thing as I was typing my post. I think that goes to show money/material things in excess or rather the (even subconscious) desire for those, even when we think we are doing good, are inevitable for corruption of the soul.
Wow okay Anabella just blew my mind. But she's absolutely correct, being nice just to get money or other material things does not make them any better than people on the naughty list. They should be good for the sake of being good, you know? In Farah's response, I liked how she brought up the excess of money and/or material things because balance was very important to the Greeks. If you had too much or too little of one thing, it could mess up your whole life. We see this in tragedies when the tragic hero has hubris, excessive pride.
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