Dance of the Letters

I really enjoyed the poem “Dance of the Letters” by Vince Gotera, which about his father’s strong ambitions. Through the images of his father teaching him to read at an early age, it is clear to me that his father places a lot of importance on education. Gotera says, “Not yet four, I read newspaper headlines” (53). His father trained Gotera for great things, and had a law degree himself.

The issue in the poem is that they are Filipino, and because of this the father’s law degree is “useless”.  I was somewhat confused as to what was meant when Gotera said, “A rule to keep American citizens from practicing law in the Philippines” (53). I did a little bit of research, and found Gotera’s personal blog in which he discusses this. http://vincegotera.blogspot.com/2009/04/c-chased-by-d.html

His father was from the Philippines, but became a naturalized US citizen and got his law degree here. However, his father could not practice law in the Philippines because there are laws preventing American citizens to practice law. Also, he could not practice in America unless he went back to school, which he felt was below him.

Instead, we see Gotera’s father working in a print shop, an position that he considered below himself. Clearly angry at his unfortunate circumstances, his father shouts “Some land of opportunity” (53). This poem does a great job highlighting the struggles of many immigrants in America. Fortunately, in the blog posted above, Gotera explains that his father does eventually find an occupation that he feels is more suitable for his ambitions. 

-Amanda

Mother Tounge

In Amy Tan's 'Mother Touge" there is a lot of comments on race and ethnicity.  Tan’s mother goes through a lot because of the way she talks.  In the story Tan refers to different English's to which she uses on different crowds.  When she is talking to a group of people at a press conference or an interview she is using correct grammar no slang and is very clear.  However, when she talks to her mother she talks in a way that her and her mother both understand what each other are saying and kind of sound the same.  When she realizes she does this she notices that no one else including her husband has a really noticed it.  To me I think that Tan was trying to make her mother feel comfortable with her accent by talking to her with improper English.  Maybe Tan feels that if she talks this way her mother will have more if a home feeling and an easier time in America.  One thing that I found interesting was how certain people can understand half of what her mom says, most of what she says or none of what she says.  I think that this comes with the background of people.  America is a country with many different races so some people may have family members who do not speak proper English and have this improper English so they are used to what they mean.  In the story Tan has to pretend to be her mom for a phone call with a stock broker.  The stock broker get s her mother angry and she ends up going to New York.  When they go to New York her mother is yelling at this man in her improper English. No one really knows how much of this the man actually understand and if he really cared that he was being yelled at, and I feel that he was also trying to take advantage of the mother since he knew of her race.

-Alex Lopes

Shimmer ch. 1

It took me a while to figure out the context of the play Shimmer. I did not understand what the deal was with this Juvinille facility, because according to the protaganist, most of the characters did not commit any crimes, and were actually innocent kids who have never broken the law. Throughout the first chapter, it is basically about how the kids banded together. They create their own way of communication, as they are not allowed to talk to eachother and it is called "Shimmers". Issues with race, ethnicity, and religion are not too prevelent in the play, but, some of the struggles that come with being part of a minority race can be seen and how they deal with it. They all band together strongly, doing everything in their power to get around the system and disobey. This mutual bonding, through the struggles experienced, is such a common theme with minority races. It is seen in almost every movement involving prejudice and mistreatment of a group of people. In the Civil Rights movement, African Americans banded together to take on the majority, and through this banding together through mutual struggle, they took on the oppressers and succeded. When a group of people is segregated, although maybe it may not be the case of segregation in this case, but they are certainly oppresed and not treated fairly, it is vital and so important to band together and fight against the system. To back down, except their unjust "punishment", not even being able to communicate, they will never succeed and defeat the powerful oppresers. Eventually they try to make a plan to escape the oppressors, this is like the succeeding of the Civil Rights movement in that they eventually fought and got their freedom, free of segregation and oppression, and eventually, in Shimmer, they successfully escape via careful planning. Race, ethnicity, and religion may not be directly related to this text, but the prices that go hand and hand with it like oppression, is what makes this play relatable.

Nick

English 110 Reflection

Prompt: How are you finding the reading assignments and reading load so far for the course? How are you creating space in your schedule to complete readings and journal entries on time? If you are not, what can you change? What have you most enjoyed reading? What has been difficult for you and how might you overcome these difficulties?


So far the reading assignments have been very interesting. Many of them, like Fun Home was quite controversial, which helps a little bit to keep a reader interested. The reading load is more extensive than any class I have ever taken, but I think that it will help me in the long run. I never used to read outside of class and school, but this class almost forces you to keep your brain fresh by reading almost every day. This class is one of the hardest classes I am taking so its easy for me to make time because its one of my top priorities. Sometimes blogging get interfered with and forgotten but eventually it gets completed. There is not much that I would change because I think that what I am doing is working very well for me. The piece that I enjoyed reading most so far was probably Martin Luther King Jr's letter from Birmingham Jail. I tend to be more of historical reader and I enjoy things with historical values behind them. The only thing that has been really difficult for me is writing the papers. I'm not exactly a world class writer but I do what I can to make it acceptable. More practice writing woud probably help improve my writing skills.

-- Shane Wilson

Chapter 7 Fun Home

The final chapter of Fun Home, really doesn't focus on race, ethnicity or religion too much. The lack of these topics in the ending of her book, I think, reveals Alison Bechdel's views towards them. The ideas of them are hinted at through her father's need for their family to appear as the typical, white, Catholic, American family. By keeping race, ethnicity and religion out of the end of the book, when her story is concluded, Bechdel is showing how unimportant these things really are. The bulk of the last chapter deals with Alison attempting to connect with her father, and have him really come out to her. Her desires have nothing to with the outside appearance of race, ethnicity or religion, but rather with the true thoughts and feelings of her father. This desire to really know her father is shown on page 225 she reveals the truest moment of bonding with her father while they are playing the piano. "It was unusual, and we were close. But not close enough" (225).
On page 220, Bechdel shows one her most profound memories of her father, when they are driving in the car. This is the first, and only real time her father opens up and tells the truth to Alison. This truth is not brought on by any of our topics; a share of beliefs or outward connection, but is rather brought on by what Alison really believes is important. She shows how important human connection and sharing feelings, especially with family, really is to her.
What I concluded from this book, based on our topic, is that Bechdel strongly believes that who a person is is based on their inner self. She makes this comparison to her father's way of thinking, which was basically opposite of Alison's (or at least based on his actions). Our topic was not very prevalent throughout this book, but what did you guys take from Fun Home in relation to race, ethnicity and religion?
-Jordan

Fun Home Chapter 6

While reading Fun Home, I try to keep in the back of my mind that the Bechdel family is supposed to be a practicing Catholic family. This is very ironic because of the numerous sins that they commit, especially Alison and her father. In chapter 6, Alison begins to masturbate (170), which is yet another sin. I don’t get a very clear sense of how Alison regards religion in the book. Although she clearly doesn’t practice Catholicism, she has not really shown any ill feelings towards it either.

The only main character that seems to be a devout Catholic is the mother, which has helped to explain her character for me so far. We know that she does not agree with Alison’s homosexuality due to religious beliefs, but she is not entirely cold either. I’m actually unsure of exactly how to describe Alison’s relationship with her mother.

When Alison finally tells her mother about starting her period, the reaction she receives is, “Oh” (185). You could take this as the mother being unsupportive towards Alison. However, it could also be a form of respect that the mother is showing towards Alison, because Alison is probably not the type of girl that would want a big deal made out of her menstrual cycle. To Alison, this is one step further away from being masculine like she desires, and it’s possible that the mother reacts in the manner that she does because she understands this. What do you guys think?                                                                                                                                                                                                             -Amanda

Chapter 5

In chapter five of the fun home you finally see Bechdel and her family, minus her father, going to church.  I think that Bechdel and her family were Christian.  The reason I think of this is because on page 140 her father gave her a diary and she said, “A curious Memento Mori” (140).  Memento Mori is a Latin phrase which means “remember death” or “remember your morality” It was used by many religions such as Christianity and puritans.  It was a phrase that the tried using to make sure that people were doing the right thing.  It was also a big art movement which also ties with how the medieval times with paintings usually showing death, skulls or things that related to the bubonic plague.  The main meaning behind this phrase was to be modest but live your life for the moment.  This is how the romans used to use the phrase when their generals would parade down the street after a great battle and they would have a slave whisper Memento Mori in their ear.  This also ties really well with the icarus story and how icarus thought highly of himself and flew to close to the sun and hi wings melted.  This also connects with her father and how he got killed form the truck and how in the beginning of the chapter she talks about how her father had this radiance to him, a grace, and in the very beginning of the chapter Bechdal talks about her dream and connects this radiance that describes her father with the sun in that dream.  Finally, one last imagery is the sun itself in her dream because he father always loved the sunset and all the colors in it but when he finally reaches the top of the hill the sun has set behind the horizon which can be used to also describe him falling from grace and Memento Mori.

-Alex Lopes

Chapter 4

In chapter four there doesn't seem to be much talk about Race, Religion, or Ethnicity.  The only thing that u found interesting was when they arrived to Greenwich village there was what appeared to be an African American in the park on page 104.  This is the firs time in the book where you can clearly see someone who is a minority.  This makes me question if Bechdel did this on purpose or did she just accidentally draw a minority in this part.  After this I started thinking of her town because it seems to have none or very few minorities in it.  This made me do some research on Bechdel which led me to research her town where she grew up, which is Lock Haven, Pennsylvania.   I found that in 2010 there was over 90% of the population to be white.http://quickfacts.census.gov/qfd/states/42/4244128.html  With this information I can kind of see how there was not a lot of minorities in the 1960’s-70’s.

-Alex Lopes

Ch. 3 Fun Home Nick

Although Ch. 3 contains basically no issues with race, ethnicity, or religion, some aspects that go hand and hand with racism are issues regarding sexual orientation. And this book contains a lot of issues with sexual orientation. In the begining of the chapter, the reader sees issues with sexual orientation when Bechdel comes out. She finds out that her father is gay, and has been having affairs with other men. "I'd been upstaged, demoted from protagonist in my own drama to comic relief in my parents tragedy"(58). This makes her feel so insufficient and coming out for gay people is no easy thing and is actually one of the hardest things they have to do because of how a lot of people aren't accepting of it. But in Bechdel's case, its not even seen as a big deal. No one even cares. This reminds me of the issues Precious faces in the novel Precious, by Sapphire. This reminds me of that because throughout the whole book Precious is viewed as a nobody by society. Almost to the point where she is "invisible". Precious' struggles remind me of a less severe version of the struggles Bechdel faces coming out. It's not even as if she isn't getting acceptance, but it is basically insignificant to her family.

Fun Home Chapter 2

Chapter 2 of Fun Home

By: Shane Wilson

The second chapter of Fun Home contains almost no information pertaining to race, ethnicity or religion. One of the few things that is in the chapter that is even relatable to the subject would be her fathers "suicide". Technically it was not a suicide because her father had been hit by a truck, and their was no way to prove that he had actually done it too himself. Bechdel was fairly convinced that it was in fact a suicide that her father committed  On page 47 in the third box down there is an underlined statement from The Myth of Sisyphus that reads, " The subject of this essay is precisely this relationship between the absurd and suicide is a solution to the absurd". Bechdel goes on to explain that this could not have been a motive for her father because he was such an in depth reader that he would have understood that the books was saying that suicide was illogical. But based on the information that we already have her father and the entire family was very religious, and as you know suicide is a large sin in the Roman Catholic community  Based on that you can determine that her father did not commit suicide, he just happened to set in front of a truck and it happened to kill him. He knew that killing himself would result in non acceptance to heaven, so he basically staged a way to kill himself without it being labeled a suicide. While I was reading many references were made to an author by the name of Albert Camus, after further research (found at this link http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/literature/laureates/1957/camus-bio.html) I discovered that he was the second youngest recipient of the Noble Prize in literature. Another part that I found to be interesting was when her grandmother tells the story of her father. It shows her father in a light in which we have yet to see him. In the story he is an innocent kid who wanders off and gets stuck in the mud. So far we have seen him in a light that makes the reader not want to sympathize with him, but after this story it shows that he was not always the way he was. After reading this piece one big question I have is how much of the story of her father is still left too explain, because clearly we do not have the whole story.

Chapter 1 New Home

New Home and the last few graphic essays have been the first comic style stories I've ever really read. The more I read the more I like this style. You get a much deeper look into the mind of the author and new messages are revealed through the illustrations combined with the captions.
The first chapter of New Home focuses mostly on the home life of the main character (Alison Bechdel) and her family, mainly her father. This first chapter doesn't focus too much on race, ethnicity and religion, but it focuses a lot on the importance of outside appearance, which can relate directly to these. Bechdel stresses throughout the chapter how obsessed her father is with the appearance of their home. He has a great talent with his hands and a knack for design. She compares her father to Daedalus, the father of Icarus, who flew to close to the sun. Like Daedalus, Bechdel's is a master engineer. However, her father is expressed as a slightly different version of Daedalus. Her father is taken over by his version of the wax wings, his house. She speaks of this on page 12 when she says "Then there are those wax wings. Was Daedalus really stricken with grief when Icarus fell into the sea? Or just disappointed with the design failure?"(12). This refers to her father and stresses once again his care for his home and seemingly lack of care for his family. On page 13 this idea is brought up again. "Or at least , the air of authenticity we lent to his exhibit. A sort of still life with children" (13). This shows how her father views the family not as the people he loves, but the people who live in the home that he built. He is obsessed with the appearance of his family and his life. "He used his skillful artifice not to make things, but to make things appear to be what they were not" (16). This quote can directly relate to outside appearance and the desire of her father to appear as the ideal, white American family. Anything else is unacceptable. Often times, children grow up to be similar to their parents.A question I have for this chapter is will Bechdel grow up to be similar to her father, or strive for difference because of the way she views her father? 
-Jordan

"Common Scents"

            In high school, I had to read the graphic novel Persepolis for an English class. This reading style was very different than what I was accustomed to, so it took me quite some time to get into the book. However, once I got used to reading graphic novels, I actually enjoyed the book a lot. I think this is a fun and different way to tell stories, which is why I was happy to see a few graphic essay readings for this class.

            The graphic essay that most interested me was “Common Scents” by Lynda Barry. The essence of this piece is that every household has a unique smell. Your own scent is familiar to you, so oftentimes your own house is the one that you cannot smell. The narrator describes this by saying, “Of course the biggest mystery of all was my own house. I couldn’t smell it at all. I didn’t think it had a smell” (104). To me, this rings very true. I can remember one day in middle school when a group of my friends somehow brought up how they all thought my house and my clothing smelled great. This was news to me, because even as I sniffed my shirt I could smell nothing. Their houses, on the other hand, I knew to have very distinct smells.

            The narrator of “Common Scents” also discusses the households that attempt to use air fresheners to cover up odors. According to her grandmother, “It is not God’s way” (106). In the essay, trying to disguise a house’s naturally occurring scent is unnatural. Barry is very comedic when she describes the results of mixing these smells, and some examples include “cherry pop-up fried liver” and “tropical passion aroma therapy cat box” (107).

            While some people try to disguise the smells of their houses, the narrator loves the scent of her house. She says, “Our house smelled like grease and fish and cigs…And if they could get that into a spray can, I’d buy it” (107). The smell your house should be something to be proud of, and it cannot be bought. This scent is that makes the narrator’s house her home.

-Amanda

Letter to Birmingham

In the "Letter to Birmingham" by Martin Luther King jr., King adresses criticisms from other religious leaders while he is in jail.  One point the King brings up that I found was very interesting is that these leaders and criticizing King for what he did to get arrested even though one of the points he is standing up for is the fact that churches and homes were bombed and no action was taken afterwords.  This made me look into how churches were segregated during the 1960's which led me to find this  article http://academic.udayton.edu/race/06hrights/waronterrorism/churchburn01a.htm.  The author of this article talked about many african american churches that were burned by racial groups such as the KKK to send a message.  One thing that really surprised me was that churches were really segregated even after school were integrated in 1954.  This made me thing that maybe people do not want to leave their comfort zones or they would not feel safe going into a different church.
I later realized that most churches are for a community and if communities were segregated then churches would be which makes a circle the contradicts itself.  King indirectly talks about this when he talks to the white Christians and Jews about how he is disappointed in the white moderate.  He also makes an interesting connection to the Jews when he says, "We can never forget that everything Hitler did in Germany was 'legal'" (pg. 3).  King also continues stating, "It was 'illegal' to aid and comfort a Jew in Hitler's Germany. But I am sure that if I had lived in Germany during that time, I would have aided and comforted my Jewish brothers even though it was illegal"  King also answers to why he can break certain laws and obey others.  when he explained this it made perfect sense to me because he mentioned, that St. Augustine said, "An unjust law is not a law at all" (pg.3).
King also comments saying, "I guess it is easy for those who have never felt the stinging darts of segregation to say 'wait.'" (pg. 2). King is saying that others have been favored because of their ethnicity's and since they have been favored they do not know the pain of not receiving the rights that they feel they should have.
Overall, the main thing that this text has made me realize is that even to this day there is some sort of segregation among churches which I feel should be the last place where segregation should be.  I wonder if anyone else has noticed about this unspoken rule of churches and communities and how they do help one another but what they also reject.
-Alex L.