Gabriella Grimes Entry #5

Discussing the Melville piece in class definitely helped to understand what the narrator was explaining. I've been thinking about "whiteness" and how the narrator believes it plays a role in our society and it's such an interesting idea because the beliefs which were held during the time of the narration are still in a way held today. What is it about white what seems so unnatural? Looking around my apartment, I see so much white: white bags, white boxes, white walls, white canvases. However I have to admit the aspect of too much white is frightening. It's unsettling to see so much white and why wouldn't it be? White is the color of the paper you will use to complete your midterms; white is the color of ghosts that will haunt you at night; white is the color of slenderman; white is the color of that creepy mannequin in the window of H&M. What I find creepy about white is that it's the only color that can be seen in very dark lighting clearly. The moon's whiteness illuminates the entire night sky and can even be seen during the day time. Whiteness follows us through our daily lives and it is always there. When you watch movies of someone going insane and getting admitted into a mental hospital, it's all white everywhere: white rooms, white uniforms, white sheets. Someone once made the argument to me that white is used in institutions because it will relax the patient. But what if it's doing the exact opposite? What if the whiteness is enforcing the patient to lose a grip on reality? I once knew a schizophrenic who saw shadows and I wonder if white walls ever made his mind see the shadows even more. What can't be seen on a white wall? If you look closely enough, you can even see your own reflection.
One of the most horrifying stories I read as a child was one about a boy on vacation with his parents. He goes to sleep one night and when he wakes up in the middle of the night, he goes to check on his parents and they aren't there. He decides that they may be downstairs in the hotel lobby but when he arrives downstairs, the lobby is entirely empty without even a bellboy to be found. The boy goes outside and to his surprise everything is white: the tropical island paradise with every color of the rainbow is now entirely white. The people he runs into are also white, but not in the sense of race. These people were as white as snow. This story always terrified me as a child because of my inability to understand how something that I imagine to be the absence of color can be the most terrifying hue in the world. White is so easily tainted, as one can imagine fresh snow being stepped on for the first time and maybe that's one reason it seems frightening. Humans with all our faults have a hard time keeping anything flawless and as children we're often told to be especially careful when wearing white. Whiteness is a very mysterious aspect of the natural world and I would wonder how many people in the world don't even consider it to be natural.