For love

Sex, something so condemned in Islam until marriage. Then you can all the sex you have. Hey have as much kids you want. But how is one supposed to get to that stage of marriage. Not just the regular way. For me as a girl can only marry a Muslim man. So identifiable. Anyone can spot them out in a crowd a Muslim couple. Man tall, bearded with dark hair, and milky skin, and woman slender, covered, dark hair and hazel eyes. Making offspring that look exactly the same. How will genetic variation occur then? Aha!…Converts looked upon highly by the Muslim community for converting.

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.