Partial Integration

Definitely hard times had hit! I was only able to go to the supermarket twice a month to get all our necessities. We could not afford to fill gas in the car with high prices and long lines. The supermarket shelves always used to be packed with all sorts of around the world items that I used in my cooking. With the boycott on oil it seems like everything else is being boycotted. It has gotten so expensive to just ship item here. Last time I went I ran into Jenny after about 5 years, a lot had changed, she had kids, I had kids and we were no longer cheery twenteh year olds.

I told her how I preferred my kids to go to school that integrated Islam along with school work. She was shocked, and argued how she doesn’t believe that is right and there needs to be integration. I wanted to say my son’s best friend is black and see what she thought about that integration.

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.