Monday, February 28, 2011

The Sinister "Arch"

Not walking under the arch is a campus tradition at Wabash College. Every morning as students walk to class, an invisible force keeps all from walking underneath. The ground on either side of arch is matted down to the soil due to this traffic. “Why is this?” a prospective student may ask. The story goes that a senior Wabash student failed comps and hanged himself from the brick supports of the arch. Ever since, the arch has been cursed, and if a careless student walks underneath, he is doomed not to graduate Wabash. But, as a post-structuralist would argue, the symbol of the arch changes with the times and no longer holds the same meaning. It is safe to say that today, the arch tradition remains a tradition only for the sake of tradition. Wabash College is built on tradition, and the arch only adds to its tradition count. I have seen students walk under the arch before, even students that are incredibly smart. I have even seen students who have passed comps walk under the arch. After almost a decade, the curse is dead, but the tradition lives on as a statement of Wabash history and pride. The arch is also used as a commercial tool, reeling in prospective students who come to Wabash looking for a home for the next four years. What better way to persuade a high schooler of the family atmosphere that Wabash fosters with a tradition as visually blatant as students circling around the dreaded arch. I remember watching current students walk around the arch when I was a prospective student, and it gave me a warm, fuzzy feeling inside. Today, the arch is much more than a living curse.

4 comments:

  1. I find your comment that today “the arch tradition remains a tradition only for the sake of tradition” interesting because, while this is clearly not its original purpose, having a tradition seems to become the arch’s signified value. Amidst this irony, a post-structuralist would have to look at the broader scope of tradition. The arbitrary and untranslatable nature of traditions in general makes them impossible to pin down as a sign. While we can recognize a solid signifier of tradition, its signified will never be constant or perfectly communicable. Even when an individual creates or discovers a signified idea for the tradition, it will break down in the language required to communicate it to others. The combination of a signifier and its signified can never come together to form a stable sign.

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  2. From a post-structuralist point of view this does makes sense. The arch as we see it represents something that happened a long time ago and it is a tradition that we feel obligated to follow. Post-structuralists would be unable to view this as a "stable" sign. I liked the use of the word "stable" from the comment because it is something that post-structuralists would not be able to resolve. Post-structuralists would find an opposite to this belief. It almost seems that post-structuralists take the fun out of this mystery. The arch is something we are proud of and will continue to follow. Even though post-structuralists would find it impossible to say that the arch is a sign, it depends on your belief.

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  3. I like what Gabe responded to the blog. Yes, a post-structuralist would argue about the meaning of the arch and its tradition for Wabash, but like Gabe said, the arch wasn't tradition at first, a tradition is what the arch became. Post-structuralists, like you said, would argue the meaning and symbolism of the arch and how it has changed over time. They would believe that there could be other reasons for the tradition of the arch.

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  4. Well the internet deleted my last post, but the main idea is that the arch is an arch until the incoming seniors learn otherwise. The arch, in that sense changes in definition every single year that new students come to learn about Wabash traditions. The arch doesn't change to those who have already learned it's signified meaning as applied at the 'Bash, it changes to anyone who already knows anything about any other arch from normal life.

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