Blog 4: Topic #4

        As a first generation student myself I understand the cultural divide that forms from the values and ideas that are taught to us and the sometimes conflicting attitudes that are taught by our society. Due to this we become stuck in the middle, not understanding whether to uphold our own ethnic values or to follow the new world that we have come a part of. Maxine Kingston’s narrator faces this cultural divide with her family and the society she has become a part of. She is trapped in the middle trying to bind with the new but the way she tries to become a part of the new is contradictory of how I invite my ethnicity to merge with society. She tries to hide her ethnicity in order to become more “American” and demeans anything and anyone, that is in her control, to stop them from being their ethnic self since it makes them “weak and feeble.” Whereas, I promote my ethnicity to find an equilibrium where I can live both aspects of my life in one world.

            The narrator conceals all connections that are present in her life that are representations of her culture. The first sign of an immigrant is their inability to speak clear and confident English. When and individual is unable to do such, as the narrator emphasizes, it not only makes the speaker ashamed and “filled with disgust” but it also leads to poor judgment on intelligence and a sense of stupidly from the listener. The narrator hides this as she overcomes her fear of speaking up as she quickly grows out of it. She is no longer wants to speak low as that is not what true natives do, so she must take the step and speak aloud even if it is broken and hindered English. Furthermore, the narrator “hates the younger sister” with the “china doll haircut” as she is super quiet but most importantly because she represents what the narrator wants to turn away from to fit in. The girl brings back all the qualities of an immigrant-one stuck in their homeland- forcing the narrator despise this seemingly harmless little girl. She abuses and bullies her trying to get her to talk going to all and any extent to make her speak and come out of the shell she is stuck in.

 For the narrator, any reminisce of her immigrant nature causes her anger and disgust however, I feel the opposite when I am confronted with my culture. I work to enlighten others on the teachings and ideas my ethnicity tends to believe even though it may cause difficulties in understanding for the other. I sympathize with the narrator as all she is trying to do is fit in however, your culture is a part of who you are and all the decisions you make in your life will be based off of the new and the old culture. We cannot distance ourselves from that background because it is the binding principles that ties us with our underlying nature. Personally, I believe it is better that we try to join the two cultures as immigrants and ethnic persons rather than separate ourselves from the old in order to better fit in with the new.

Blog Post #4 Topic #2- Amanda Hovnanian

Amanda Hovnanian

Blog Post #4 Topic #2

The poem of “Diving into the Wreck” by Adrienne Rich is viewed by many as a conceit. A conceit is an extended metaphor that describes something in a roundabout way where the poet or author never truly reveals the exact thing they are talking about. It has been discussed that this poem is a conceit for Rich’s own personal experience with remembering her husband and dealing with her husband’s suicide.

In the poem Rich takes about descending down into the dark water “I go down.” I believe that this is a metaphor for diving back into the memory of her husband’s suicide. She is armed with all of her scuba gear and mask and as she descends into this memory she describes the following, “... I am blacking out and yet/ my mask is powerful/ it pumps my blood with power.” I believe that Rich is trying to express how she feels like passing out from the emotional weight of this memory, but her “mask” of her new identity as a lesbian writer helped to keep her strong while she explores her past. I believe she explains her motives of exploring this painful part of her past when she states “I came to see the damage that was done/ and the treasure that prevail.” She returns to the memory of her husband’s suicide to see the pain that was caused, but also relish in the good that came out of his death. From the death of her husband, Rich was able to be the full fledged writer that she wanted to be and she was free to express herself as a lesbian after so many years of supressing her sexuallity while married to a man.

Rich also writes “the thing I came for:/ the wreck and not the story of the wreck/ the thing itself and not the myth.” I believe this means that Rich does not return to the memory of her dead husband to reminisce about the good marriage or life they had together, but for her husband himself. I believe that Rich is trying to express that she did indeed have feelings for her husband, perhaps not romantic feelings, but she still cared for him on some level. She looks back on these memories to remember her husband as a person, not to remember the facade that she had created to live in with him.

Rich talks about her husband in the lines that state, “whose drowned face sleeps with open eyes/ whose breasts still bear the stress.” This may be Rich referring to how her husband had to bear the stress of her coming out, the realization of the shame that he married a lesbian, or of her leaving him; the result was him killing himself. She also goes on to talk about “we are the half-destroyed instruments/ that once held to a course.” I believe that Rich is again talking about her husband, but also herself. It seems that they both were “half-destroyed instruments” because they both were volatile in their marriage and hurt each other. They both held to the course of being a good married couple, because divorce was frowned upon back then and even more frowned upon were people that recognized as homosexual. So, the couple stayed the course and remained married for a long time even though it tore away at both of them.

Finally, Rich writes “by cowardice or courage/ the ones who find our way back to this scene.” No matter where Rich goes in life this part of her past goes with her. Whether she chooses to remember it out of fear or out of boldness, she still has the memories of her husband and his death.

Word count: 618

Mira Daya Blog Post #4, Topic #4

Sandra Cisneros's “Woman Hollering Creek” describes the life of a woman named Cleofilas who was married off and taken across the border into the United States. As the story progresses, Cisneros describes some of Cleofilas’ fantasies about her future which we are able to compare to how her life actually turns out. We see Cleofilas’ difficult transition into living in this new territory and witness her failure of not being able to live a life similar to the romantic telenovelas she often fantasized about.  As a first generation person living in the United States with more than 80% of my extended family being composed of Indian immigrants, the knowledge I have about their transition into American culture as well as their attitudes before they moved to the U.S., helped me understand and sympathize with Cleofilas’ thoughts and actions as an immigrant. I believe that Cisneros does an exceptional job helping us understand internal conflicts that occur to immigrants in America.

When reading this short story, I greatly sympathized with Cleofilas when we find out how terrible her life is in America. She does not seem to have any friends and she knows little about her neighbors. Worst of all, her husband turns out to be physically and emotionally abusive. In my perspective, immigrants, many of which are uneducated, are originally excited and hopeful to move to the land of great opportunities but are met with disappointment once they arrive just as Cleofilas did. Not too long ago, some relatives of mine moved to America from India. I remember thinking “Why on Earth do they want to move here?” They had been very successful in India before they planned to immigrate. As I reflected on the difficulties my parents faced when they first immigrated here, I knew that my relatives would be going from being well known and successful in India to being at the bottom again looking for completely new careers to begin in America. Just how Cleofilas fantasized about her new life with her husband to be wonderful and romantic with no flaws, my relatives fantasized about one day coming to America and enjoying everything American culture has to offer. Unfortunately, as Cisneros describes, “Cleofilas thought her life would have to be like that, like a telenovela, only now the episodes got sadder and sadder.” Cleofilas fantasies came to a devastating downfall into a pool of abuse and fear caused by her husband. Cleofilas was met with disappointment, just as  my relatives were. They did not like it here in America because it was nothing like they thought it to be.

Another common feeling aside from disappointment faced by immigrants is loneliness. Cisneros describes Cleofilas’ loneliness in the following, “There is no place to go. Unless one counts the neighbor ladies.” Cleofilas is stranded in her small house where there is no one to talk to and no telenovelas to enjoy. Similarly, my relatives did not know many people around the area, which made it very lonely and hard to transition at first. Reflecting the experience of my relatives to Cleofilas, Cisneros does a good job illustrating common problems immigrants face as well as describe the feelings and thoughts they have during their time in transition.

Word Count: 537

Blog Post #4 Topic #2

            Conceit is a complex metaphor that helps the author make an argument in a more obscure manner so that the author's true argument is never clearly stated; authors who wrote obscene or offensive material often had their careers destroyed by the harsh judgment of the public or the government. Adrienne Rich was dissatisfied with the confinement of motherhood and the expectations of a woman in the 1950s so she rebelled against the norm. Rich moved out, became a lesbian, and became involved in politics, which was soon reflected in her work. In Diving into the Wreck by Adrienne Rich, the narrator’s exploration of the wreckage of the ship can be interpreted as her husband’s suicide, the state of the country, or her becoming a lesbian. While conceit allows for many different interpretations of the story, I believe that Rich’s story is a metaphor for her husband’s suicide.

            The name Adrienne Rich was well-known due to the success of both of her parents as well as her own in her writing career. After Rich moved out and revealed she was a lesbian, her husband committed suicide by shooting himself. Her deviation from the social norm could have led to the public spinning multiple stories about her husband’s motivation to commit suicide.

Diving into the Wreck is about Rich’s own journey to analyze the true reasons behind her husband’s suicide. Her intentions are stated when she says “I came for:/ the wreck and not the story of the wreck/the thing itself and not the myth.”  It is clear that the public has made up stories that are myths and Rich is looking for the truth. She goes back to the place where it happened, or the “wreck,” which reveals gory details of the event. The majority of the story takes place underwater and Rich is insinuating that her husband drowned himself when she writes “whose drowned face sleeps with open eyes.” Also, the body had “breasts still bear the stress,” which often occurs when someone goes through a heartbreak and feels the pain in their chest. These lines are the details from her husband’s suicide; the detail about stress in the body’s breast could be related to her husband’s heartbreak or shock when she leaves him and then reveals she is a lesbian. Lastly, Rich reveals her feelings of guilt about the situation when she cannot decide who to address; “we are, I am, you are” explains her confusion over which party is to blame. Society has various opinions on suicide and Rich is unsure whether her husband’s actions are “by cowardice or courage.” Rich feels guilty so she revisits the scene and blames herself because she might have been the reason he did it. However, she is also angry at him when she calls suicide cowardice. These excerpts from the text show that Diving into the Wreck could be about the suicide of the author’s husband.

            In my opinion, Rich wrote Diving into the Wreck to analyze the motives of the suicide; the story reveals her conflicting emotions of internal guilt and anger directed at her husband for his actions. While I understand the text in this way, other readers may choose to believe the story is about the state of the country because it was written around the time of the Vietnam War. The use of conceit conceals the authors true argument to allow the reader to formulate an opinion about the argument themselves.

WC:576

Blog Post 3 Topic 3

Insanity is defined as the “unsoundness of mind, sufficient to render a person unfit to maintain a contractual, or other legal relationship, or sufficient to warrant commitment to a mental health facility; Incapacity to form the criminal intent necessary for legal responsibility, as when a mental disorder prevents a person from knowing the difference between right and wrong.” Although, this explanation seems to give a very descriptive definition of insanity, it doesn’t deal with the grey area of how another human can determine whether an “insane” person is unfitting to maintain the previously mentioned relationships. Why can a ‘sane’ person determine what is right and wrong. One example of this in contemporary cultural is the ongoing practice of the caste system in India. A Dalit is a term for members of the lowest caste who are essentially treated as “untouchables”, segregated from others in society. Dalit’s are discriminated for basic necessities such as food, healthcare, occupation and marriage too. Although this system has been shunned upon or even ‘abolished’, it is still influential in most parts of India. People who practice the caste-system think it is a tradition which enriches the culture of India but if you mention this practice to outsiders, they will think you’re insane for setting up another human’s fate even before they are born.  This example shows how insanity is a subjective term for people from different backgrounds.

In the play ‘A Street Car Named Desire’ by Tennessee Williams, we watch the gradual transformation of Blanche Dubois, a once cultured and intelligent school-teacher turning into a broken woman who eventually gets admitted into a mental institution. Blanche is a somewhat complex character to sympathize with due to the experiences she has been through. Blanche causing her young husband to commit suicide and the deaths of her relatives triggered a significant change to Blanche’s personality. The deaths combined with the loss of Belle Reve (having to move to an apartment in New Orleans) would have induced mental illness. “I don’t want realism, I want magic! … then let me be damned for it!” – This quote by Blanche seems to indicate her tipping point and shows her hated against the world.

Blanche, a heavily damaged woman who tries to fill her empty heart with sexual interactions, is even more burdened by the expectations of women to be feminine and her constant need to dress well and look presentable to others but it comes to a point where she is not able to face reality when her world comes crumbling down. Her lack of basic life skills and a lack of occupation already fulfills the ‘definition’ of insanity. Blanche’s insanity eventually becomes ‘complete’ after Stanley rapes her and she cannot distinguish her imagination from reality.

At first, we see Blanche attempt to escape from reality by refusing to accept that she has descended into poverty   and that she takes comforts from illusions of love and financial security. Even though it can be argued that insanity is subjective, a majority of Blanche’s symptoms give evidence that she can indeed be called insane.