The “red-tinted glasses” in my opinion symbolize the fact that what we see in reality is restricted. When you place the glasses on your head, your field of vision becomes red and you are restricted to this perspective until you take off your glasses and view the world without interfering factors such as stereotypes.
Unfortunately for us, we are unable to bask in this boundless perspective due to the fact that we are all born with ‘glasses’. Our views will always be tainted with opinions and our own past experiences. The ‘glasses’ themselves naturally act as a basis for knowledge to be built upon as they consist of native ideas such as ‘cause and effect’. These are also the “’glasses’ of reason” mentioned in the novel that we cannot take off. These ‘glasses’ may appear to be crystal clear at birth, but once they are exposed to sensations, they become decorated or stained with knowledge.
Looking back into the years, I still remember my first encounter with the tropical fruit, durian. Upon display of my curious nature, I instinctively reached out to grab the fruit but not knowing that the spikes were that sharp, I got hurt and started to bleed. From then on, my ‘glasses’ have been tainted with a negative impression of the durian. Although now the smell of it is no longer revolting, I am unable to stop myself from throwing negative comments about its taste, appearance and smell whenever I can.
Therefore, as we grow older, our glasses become increasingly tailored to suit its owner. Similarly, “the water adapts itself to the pitcher’s form”.
Furthermore, Kant also states that “there are two elements that contribute to our knowledge of the world – Sensory perception and reason.” This means that our knowledge is split into an equilibrium of Empiricism (sense) and Rationalism (reason). Our experiences act as our senses and our ‘glasses’ act as our reason. These two factors are co-dependent on each other. For example, how can one know how much they dislike a particular genre of music before they have even listened to it (sense)? And after they have listened to it, do we not need a ‘pair of glasses’ to determine whether or not we like it (reason)?
In conclusion, we perceive the world through innate ‘glasses’. These glasses, however become increasingly tainted due to our experiences and often affect our perspective and our knowledge of the world as a whole.
8 comments:
Hi Michelle!
This is a great post! I really like your association of the water in the pitcher. I also agree that we are born with clear glasses.
I concur with you that the "crystal clear" perspective we have at birth become clouded with intellectual development. Is perspective really "tainted" and considered negative, however? I think there is neither wrong nor right with perception.
Oh and I hate durian too.
Hi Nichole,
The reason why I chose to use the word "tainted" is because our views are biased with our own opinions. We are unable to view the world without bias which is why it limits our perspective. We are often unable to make pure judgments without our "tainted glasses".
Very nice metaphors and imagery, especially the pitcher of water. =D
However, this has left me with a few questions. If we are born with glasses, is it possible that they are already tinted beforehand?
hey, I really like your post!!
nice use of different forms of imagery . I also believe that we are born with crystal clear glasses but as we grow older, our so-called glasses become tainted with negative connotations which in turn limit us from seeing the world as it actually is.
Hello Michelle,
I agree with your post and find your comparison between rationalists and empiricists very interesting. They work together as you said when hearing music and in fact must be used when we are using our five senses. Actually, red tinted glasses includes everything, not just our eyes.
this is a good post, especially the metaphor! but have to agree with what gary mentioned which is if we were born w/ glasses, couldnt they also already be tinted??
I think you have explained this really well and I like the way you have used metaphors and imagery and said how we are born with the glasses. But like Gary and Ollie although we are born with the glasses could those glasses not be already tinted in a way?
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