red-tinted glass assignment

Revisit the "red-tinted glasses" extended metaphor in Chapter 25 ('Kant').What's the meaning of it? How do these questions of perspective apply to your own life? Use examples from the novel and your life to illustrate your understanding of the "red-tinted glasses"metaphor/experiment.

This chapter of the novel is very interesting, as it describes the difference between what we sense, which is the raw truth, fact, which is provable or evident and what we understand, or percieve, rather, about what had been sensed. In life, as we grow, we learn, experience and watch to build our knowledge. An example of this, was demonstrated in this chapter, of the 'red-tinted glass' In this case, Sophie grew up and learnt that the world is colourful and brighter, which is why when she wore the red tinted glasses, that didn't change the way she felt about the world. Now, if she simply were to describe what she saw (which is the raw truth, what is evident) she would say "everything is RED. The world is red" but because she had grown up and learnt that the world actually isn't purely red, she was able to say, through experience "everything I see is red, but in reality, its not!"

In the same way, that is how life is. Everyone grows up and is taught to live certain ways of life. Some things are universal- like, for example, table manners or stealing is bad- and some may be cultural based- like in India when a young boy is to greet an adult, he has to touch his feet, to show respect, but that isn't necessary in other cultures. People may learn that stealing is bad through experience. They get punished for stealing something and this permanently engraves itself in that persons mind. In the future, if they were ever to face a similar situation, they wouldn't because they know it is wrong. If they experienced it and didn't get caught or punished, they would probably not have learnt stealing is wrong. So I believe learning and understanding is very important.

Many a times we smell smoke, or hear loud bangs and sense danger. So our sensations help us form perceptions. If we didn't have sensations at all, we wouldnt be able to percieve, learn or understand anything. So percieving and understanding isn't anything if it weren't for sensing them in the first place. In the case of the red tinted glass, if Sophie couldnt see at all, she would have never known that in those glasses the world was red, or that the world is colourful at all! to her everything would be black, so without her sensation, she wouldn't be able to understand or learn or experience what the world really looked like.
I must agree with Kant as he concluded that perception and sensation do play a major role in life, but only when they're together, will it teach you. Its much harder to get through life lacking a sensation, or knowledge, an understanding about something.