This assignment one must choose a topic that reflects or resonates with them whilst using two sources that incorporate rhetoric using this genre through the readings as support for the central point of the paper.

Open Your Tunnel Vision 

The sense of self goes through shambles for many individuals as we continue to grow and grasp new information as the flow of life persists. We all have our own uniqueness to ourselves to some degree even if we may have been exposed to the same ideas or information, we all have different experiences, thoughts, emotions, a different lens to how we view everything. There are people who are assured of themselves and there are people who are or have lost themselves, there may possibly be others who believe they are aware of their sense of self identity but there are still empty spaces that they haven’t filled to themselves. Self identity reflects self esteem and one’s worth and it all ties with the start of how we call ourselves or go by, and then setting the vision of this is who you are and this tells others that are seeing you through the lens that you give them about yourself. I started to really understand who I truly am not too long ago and I continue to learn for myself. For my whole life, I thought that only what has been exposed to me ever since I was born define who I am. One’s beliefs and culture certainly makes a part of who you are, but you must dig deeper to find the core roots of yourself. There is no specific way to do this of course, we just all have to figure it out for ourselves. Things aren’t made clear to us and we can find ways to bring us guidance when we are lost or confused, but there is no key answer to everything. 

In the context of Fantomina, Fantomina undergoes multiple personas towards Beauplaisir, whom only gained sexual pleasure and physical attraction from different women all coming from the same person Fantomina herself. She truly loved for Beauplaisir and wanted to keep his interests to her, but in successfully fooling over this man who had sexual tendencies with all of these personas had her to realize that he doesn’t like Fantomina at all. She was desperate for him to be in a committed relationship with her and to build something together even if it was clear that he wasn’t on the same page. She loses herself as she sees and proves to herself over and over again that Beauplaisir was only driven by his sexual desires and these were his needs that would be fulfilled by all of these personas. Fantomina makes Beauplaisir look like a complete fool, but at the same time it seems that she was also a fool as she persisted and appears to have become delusional for running towards a love that isn’t there at all. The strategy she used is in a way smart as she is showing to all outsiders viewing this context how idiotic and brainless men could be, as if they were their own species. Even if she had him wrapped around her finger or was trying to show the control she had of him, she thought that she was dissatisfying Beauplaisir and her sexual acts couldn’t keep him from wanting her. She lost her sense of self in the act of being these multiple personas to keep the attention of a man, otherwise I think that she shouldn’t of done this and rather find someone that will give her everything she was expecting to have with Beauplaisir and more whilst being Fantomina, if the chances weren’t unrealistic during this era.

Pretty Girl by Clairo is a song that can be connected to Fantomina and the concept of self identity as in this song she says that she was blinded by the love of a guy who consumed her to where she didn’t know who she was anymore. “And I could be a pretty girl,  I’ll wear a skirt for you. And I could be a pretty girl, shut up when you want me to “ These lyrics show examples of how men view women in what they like or what they want to see from us. When she says “I’ll wear a skirt for you” this is her saying to look “appealing” or “sexy” since that’s what men like to see. They want us to behave and do things for their favor, as if we are objects for their gratification. “And I could be a pretty girl, won’t ever make you blue. And I could be a pretty girl, I’ll lose myself in you” she gets so consumed by the person that she’s with that she loses herself during the process. The audience is to those who have dealt with a partner that has been toxic towards them yet they were blinded by their love and their forms of manipulation tactics that once you are out of it is then when you realize their treatment towards you. Great Circle by Maggie Shipstead have two women who are well-known in distinct ways. One was already a well-known aviator who became a legend following her strange disappearance on her final trip. The other is a modern-day Hollywood starlet aspiring to become a major award-winning actress by playing the pilot in a film. The exploration of identity themes is complex because the characters’ circumstances are similarly complex: already famous but with enough room to become even more famous in a slightly different way while remaining the person they were before fame altered the dimensionality of their own self-identity. The discovery of self identity is presented within all of these sources all coming to a close end of this topic.