Resp to ryan’s blog

Wow!

I loved all the imagery used in this piece. It was really good. From the language used I got the feeling of despair and just wanting of this life to end so one can move on. Just fed up and tired of the cards one is dealt but will continue to play it until time to move on. I think the description of the body for example with the branding and the description of Valencia was one that is grounded is an exact description of the carving and the fatness of Valencia. Also the genuine feeling of disgust when ryan noted about the “stabbing” of the eyes. My eyes squirm when I read that statement. When reading the book I also noted the part where Billy is sleeping and he notices the horses and agony. Then he noted that if he was to only recount the good memories he would just have gone and continue sleeping. When you sleep all your troubles cease to exist and when you awake you are hit with them all. Billy every time he closes his eyes though he seems to be reliving some different times in his life that serve as sorrowful reminders of his youth that was wasted in war and what he must go through now because of it.

Response to Half Breed

When I noticed the title the first thing that popped into my mind was dogs. My boss at my job is in love with dogs and just recently bought a so called “pure” one. She noted though that it was really cheap so how pure could it be. This is funny because being a half-breed or of mixed culture is very hard to identify with a certain group, and even in some societies of people not worth as much if one is not pure of a certain ethnicity. This mixed breed in many cultures as a result is a minority. I believe it is looked down upon also in many cultures just because parents foreshadow the hardship their children might face when in school such as getting asked questions about what are you, or you look different. It is somewhat easier though when being raised of mix cultures in American society because it is more open.

Life (resp6)

The rain was pouring and seemed that there was no end in sight. We were being hit by all sorts of firearms from all sides, we were about to surrender though. Us Americans would surrender and allowed to live. The most enduring for me as one of the older Colonels was to see all the young dead faces around in the dirt. We had surrender to save our lives for what little time left that we had. Maybe on the train right to the prisoners’ camp we would be able to write our goodbye letters and any special last words to our families to leave with some special character that would survive this. The train ride was excruciating pain with disgusting smells hitting you all at once, some of green, molded food, mixed with the excrements and the smell of blood that was like paint on the train floors. Being a school teacher this would compare to seeing a child not being able to read at the age of high school. Where will this train lead us…

“I don’t know if I can handle dad anymore” said Barbara, “it is just too stressful and I really have to worry about other things.” “Don’t say that,” Robert said, “dad has been there for us through everything.” All the recent articles and problems with the office were causing Barbra a bit of stress that she just couldn’t handle. She could not deal with the office and running her house. The thought of losing her dad though was just too much to handle. He just seemed so calm about life like he knew everything he wanted to and was satisfied. The husband was not so happy about the little attention that he was getting and Billy was becoming a problem to handle, but he knew he was all that was left for Barbara. Robert could be lost at any moment out where he was being a Green Beret and all. So how am I supposed to deal with this now…

I am pregnant and all alone here. In this little glass case where everyone can just have all the looks they want at me. Every movement I do, I just wish I had someone to talk to other than this man. I use to be so famous not a person that would settle down and have a kid. Living the life of any star, all the clothes, jewelry, and men I wanted. Now look where I am, feeling so old and so big! I am accustomed to being watched naked but not big and naked; I don’t even feel like myself. I still have more time before I need to have a kid; I am too young for these responsibilities. I don’t even know this man, he is sincere and kind but what type of place is this to raise a child. We are like animals in a circus or some sort of science project being reared to be studied. The child will have no one to befriend, this environment is just not right. What will happen now…

Slaughter House Five

Use of the Latrine

The words used in Slaughter House Five at times seemed so calm for the events that was being described. The most shocking to me was the run on of “So it goes.” There was no pause to acknowledge death just keep going with life. The idea of that people do not die but will exist in the past, present and future according to the Tramalfadorians was interesting. It seemed like the Earthlings worry about everything especially death when there was no such thing to the Tramalfadorians. Especially the death noted in the book of the young, the babies. I feel like Vonnegut was trying to get the issue of fear of not being able to live a full life because of this war. That many people were dying and wouldn’t be able to experience life. For example while in the Dresdon camp the school teacher is talking with a British soldier and notes that they are about similar ages and both have maturity and experience, both things that the young soldiers lack. Vonnegut also uses repetition to make a scene more clearly for example each time he describes Billy’s walk he states its bobbing “up and down, up and down” this makes the scene more imaginable to me. Also in many of the scenes images or pieces of belongs relate back to other scenes for example with the division of line between British and American something Billy noted he already was accustomed to from childhood. Another is the locket that Montana wore that had the inscription of the same words that Billy hung in his office. The image of the British using latrines also stuck out to me a lot. Just because in the movie of Slumdog Millionaire that was probably the funniest/ grossest scene to me, so I could just imagine the shock and amazement the British must have been at looking at the Americans.

Native languages…

assimilation into the doxa

Both Momaday and Kingston used styles in their writings that are paradoxical. I found so many connections to many real life situations with Kingston’s Tripmaster Monkey. I believe the doxa part of Tripmaster Monkey is that people all the time do make fun of people and how they act or dress especially when they come from another country. It was funny because just this weekend when I was in another country myself, I came across this Asian that talked the same way as described by Kingston and he was talking about how he is the king of all parties. All I could think of is how is this FOB such a cool guy. I know it was wrong to laugh but couldn’t help it. This is part of our identity and our anecdotes how we talk. In psychology class that I am taking the book noted that language is how we think. So different people of different cultures would think different because they have different languages. In an anecdote or a description of an experience we use words that we are common with for example Momaday uses Mammedaty instead of words like grandmother or great-great-grandmother. In my experiences of family I would use “Gan”/ “Gamma” for my grandmothers names. I found it very difficult to read Momaday’s story though because its layout was very different that just left to right and up to down. This just adds more contrast to and complexity to understanding the novel. Also one other thing that was interesting was the Kiowas calendar was a picture calendar. All places calendars are different some following different names of months and so on.

Roots

Both the readings for this week had to do with heritage and some sort of suppression. This is something that I can directly relate to because I only moved to America in 1999 and had to “Americanize” myself. In respects to language, culture, and dress. In Guyana a former British colony and a mix of 7 different indigenous cultures our accent is very unique. The quote from Anzaldua that stuck out to me is “Being Mexican is a state of soul-not one of mind, not one of citizenship.” I am Guyanese it is in my blood and that can’t change. I found some important poetics in Anzadua’s story. Especially with plurality of words. She lists off the many dialects for example 1. Standard English 2. Standard Spanish 3. Tex-Mex, which then is a mix of both Spanish and English. These dialects are not just used as for language but also used to tell where you are from or what generation are part of. Sandra Cisneros is an excellent author is depicting the Hispanic life. I have read past works by her and liked them. The tragedy that women encounter are prevalent in both readings. This is what the general consensus is that women are oppressed even in language and are not the dominant ones. To escape would be to go against the consensus much yet to drive a pickup truck of your own. This is prevalent in many cultures where women are dependent on their husbands and husbands display their machismo.

Thoughts on readings

The Plot Against America and several of the other readings gave some incite to our overall project we are working on and what direction I should be taking. The time aspect in the Plot against America made the novel stand out and paradoxical. For some reason when stating something in chronological order or within a time frame words seem to flow too fast and lacks emotion and experience. The words just seem to come out without thinking. This is shown as an example in chapter 8 compared to the other chapters that Philip narrates in kind of a forward backward time frame. Especially chapter 9, this made me cry, because he was stating that Seldon would come to realize his mother was gone. And death as a perpetual fear. Something that has become part of my fears the loss of someone when I lost someone dear to me last year.

I also liked Everyday Use, coming from an Indian family but from the Caribbean we are mixed with a lot of different ethnic/ cultural aspects. I could see how Dee acts is something like how I would do. Only at certain times is it “fashionable” to say you are of a certain heritage. In some groups of friends I identify myself as Indian, or others as Caribbean or even as Muslim with other groups of people.

Recitatif was also an interesting story. It was more like multiple scenes in a movie that jumps over time periods and the date is noted on the bottom. You are kind of given its different time periods just from the way the characters act or what is part of their environment. Also that Roberta and Twyla could never get out of their mind about Maggie. This is that their experience will shape their lives and how they interact. Roberta and Twyla both could never get out of their minds about Maggie. We never forget the peculiar or something that is against the norm in our lives.

Fear and Experience

Part One

The Plot Against America by Philip Roth was a very interesting book to read. First started reading it, I didn’t look to the back to see that it was a “narrative invention,” and was somewhat made up experiences. So I was so shocked and surprised at some of the points. This book did serve as a paradoxical novel away from American “consensus” thoughts. One example that specifically stuck out was the idea of a Republican who is President Lindberg going to cities all across the US and giving speeches to win votes. This sticks out as against consensus of something a republican would do specifically the part in the novel where Lindberg is supposed to go to Chicago to give his first speech but never ends up. That is the prime working class city that most Republican would know they would lose to a Democratic candidate. Another issue that was prevalent in the reading of this novel was the idea of containment. Based on the reading of A Very Short Introduction: The Cold War, which is actual fact/myth/consensus America was not a country to back down in a fight or to help prevent the spread of oppositions to democracy. In this novel Lindberg was clearly elected due to his ideas of keeping America out of war at all costs. Befriending Hitler, which as discussed in class along with Mussolini, and Stalin were all given evil connotations in an American students head, either from high school teachers, media or parents. In addition something that jumped out as surprising was the fact that Hitler was invited to the White House along with his girlfriend of all days on Fourth of July for celebrations.

The historicity of the novel served to make the novel seem real and able to happen at some points in time. If the novel was too far-fetched then people would stop reading and think the ideas are too absurd. Roth played on this in several steps especially with the idea of Lindberg being the puppet for Hitler due to the fact of his child was in their hands. The fact that Lindberg would not be able to see his child if he didn’t do what Himmler wanted. This scene also lends to the idea of perpetual fear. This everlasting fear of if not doing as told what would the outcome be or the consequences to ones actions. The historicity gives the novel time consciousness with chapter 8 given as newsreels, while the disruptive parts brings the times and events to reality and shocking.

Another example of this perpetual fear is seen with Aunt Evelyn. When Philip goes to visit her office Aunt Evelyn is amused by showing Philip all the materialistic things she is able to get from Rabbi Benglsdorf, such as the bracelet, her broach, and ring. In the end of the novel when Aunt Evelyn runs to Bess for protection, she is turned away because Bess tells her go to her mansion for protection we can’t do anything for you. It shows that these materialistic things cannot help with feeling of fear that are inside, it cannot shield you from fear. These are tangible things unlike the insurance policies that Herman sells which are intangible and would help with the fear of dying and what would be left of your children.

Part Two

Several lessons about paradoxical writing can be taken. For one the quote I like the best from this novel is “History is everything that happens everywhere…” In writing this novel generalized statements about events or feelings were not made. Everything was detailed oriented, for example with the part with Route 22 highway and the pipelines. Also the disruptiveness made the novel more interesting and had to pay more attention. At several points including the one with Seldon’s father’s death and when Bess went to take Aunt Evelyn home and Philip was imagining his father married to Seldon’s mother. These parts I had to reread because I thought I missed a sentence to link the two ideas together. Also the novel started off as a novel then was disrupted and written as a newsreel in Chapter 8, which made the reading very interesting. It took the novel outside to the big picture for a little while and then brought it back in for closing in Chapter 9.

Parallels and “Fitting In”

The Plot against America was a book that as soon as I started I knew was written post September 11, 2001. There were many references and parallel to many of the incidents, experiences, and emotions that were felt in America post September11. These references of Anti-Semitism feeling and the riots were all those feelings felt by Muslim Americans post the incident. Another similarity I drew was the parallels between the election race against Lindberg and Roosevelt to the present day elections that were recently held. For example Lindberg was supposed to go and give an address in Detroit. This is where Obama made his stomping ground because he is from Chicago. Some things were changed to make it a bit more literary than historical though because being a Republican you wouldn’t expect Lindbergh to go and give a speech in Detroit the working class America but more something a Democrat like Obama would. Another parallel I seemed to find with contemporary times was the segregation of Jews in one city with all the children going to one school and living there lives. I found this very believable because being a Muslim that is so similar to Judaism it is so hard to be “absorbed” into “American” culture, unless you totally do not care and lose all morals like Sandy did by eating all sorts of pig products. I found this very appealing to the stories emotions and I was shocked when reading this. Eating of pig is like the ultimate non-kosher. It is hard for Jews and Muslims to fit into “American” society because of our strong religious and family structure and how we hold certain instances as important. Compared to “American” culture where religion is not really observed outwardly, where Jews wear the hats or dress in a certain way like Muslims also. This is what makes us stand out as being different from Christians who sort of blend in.

Separtion in Families

I liked reading John Updike’s short story Separating. My own parents who have been separated since I was two years old have caused me lots of emotional pain as is noted but no practical day to day effect. It’s like by Joan telling him he needs to speak to their children one by one makes it more personal instead of telling the children as a whole. I think in parts of the story you see the why he is leaving because he feels trapped, but never shows why he is feeling trapped, is it because of the chores he has to do in the house. Then later on in the story he sees a lady’s house who would be his future wife and her light was on. So from this I guess he was cheating with another woman. This seems to be a big reason for most divorces. I believe most divorces or usually anything with sad outcomes don’t really give you the details just glances over it, like Updike notes about the movies while Richard is sitting in the car. Again I seem to be able to relate a lot to these readings because I read a note on someone’s facebook earlier about a Muslim couple and the man wanted to get a divorce because his wife was getting older and he met someone younger. So she had one request was for him to wait until the son’s exams were done in a month so he wouldn’t be unstable and for in that month each day carry her out of the bedroom to the front door where she left for work. During this time, he realized how intimate this lady was to him. So the reason for “why” also was forgotten.