Blog Post 4, Topic 2

“No change can come if those who are impacted the most by discrimination are not willing to stand up for themselves” (Zainab Salbi). In the 1960s to the end of 1970s this message was at the heart of the era. People were finally standing up for the discriminations that had plagued the US, regardless of the consequences that could have occurred. Not only was the civil rights movement a dominant part of this time, but the feminist movement, anti-Vietnam War movement, and the gay rights movement were also key events that influenced the life of that time. A piece of work that acknowledges and captures the struggles of this time is the poem “Diving into the Wreck,” by Adrienne Rich.  Although on the surface, the poem just talks about a diver suiting up and going into the ocean’s deep to discover a shipwreck, there is a conceit in this piece that allows for the poem to have a deeper meaning within it. Depending on what aspect of Rich’s life is being analyzed, many different connotations could be developed and argued about what the conceit is. Although the conceit could represent many other meanings, the best explanation is that the dive symbolizes Rich’s dive into activism and the fight for those movements in a society that tried to suppress them.

The main movements that Rich was involved in, was the civil rights, anti-Vietnam War, and gay rights movement. The Civil Rights movement was a well-known battle between the bigoted people of society, who refused to treat African Americans fairly and equally, and the African Americans, who simply wanted liberty and freedom. This movement officially started in the middle of the 1950’s and lasted until 1968. In the 1960’s, that is when the movement became heavily underway with many assaults, attacks, boycotts, and riots breaking out due to the African Americans standing up and fighting for their rights. The anti-Vietnam War movement was also prominent during the 1960’s and consisted of Americans protesting and fighting against America’s involvement in the Vietnam War. People were angry that their young men had to be drafted into the army and killed senselessly over a war that did not even affect them. This crowd consisted mostly of young educated adults and hippies that believed that peace was the answer anyway. The Gay Rights movement was another huge protest in the 1960’s due to the LGBT community not wanting to hide from society anymore and be openly able to express themselves even when it was frowned upon. Like the Civil Rights movement, this movement also fought for freedom and equal rights, but was also heavily attacked and unwanted due to society’s views of gay people. Despite the immense trouble that a person could get into by participating and defending any of these movements, Adrienne Rich still dove right into the middle of them and spoke up for the people that did not have a voice.

Rich’s poem symbolizes the journey into the controversial movements of that time through its use of language. Like when the poem talks about the ladder and how “the ladder is always there/ hanging innocently” (Rich). The ladder is symbolism of the path taken when finally deciding to step out of the norms of the world to fight for what is right. The ladder separates the world as everyone knows it from the deep underwater world that no one has yet to explore and understand, just as the movements did in society. Rich further explains how “We know what it is used for, / we who have used it” (Rich), because only the people who consciously make the decision to fight back know the transition between living like the rest of the world and going against what everyone else believes. As Rich moves down the ladder to become politically awaken to the prejudices of America, she comes across the wreck. Once she finds it, she describes herself by saying, “And I am here, the mermaid whose dark hair/ streams back, the merman in his armored body” (Rich). Rich describes herself as not just a singular person, but collectively as multiple people, showing how she does not stand alone during the middle of this wreckage and tribulating time. The fact that the mermen have armored bodies also help identify that the men are suited up during battle and armed against their defenses. The tense of the poem also changes from first person to second person when she says, “We circle silently/ about the wreck/ we dive into the hold” (Rich). The “we” in this statement displays how she is with other people that stand together against the people that want to condemn them, and they dive into the challenge as one and with a common purpose to prevail through the wreck no matter the cost. This poem also captures the essence of the movements through its use of unity. Multiple times throughout the poem, Rich explains how, “I am she: I am he,” which embodies the character of the movements of that time. These movements thrived off the unification of people in order to combat the long-lasting views of the world. Through this poem, Rich subtly enlightened the world of the importance of these movements and how she stood with them throughout the duration of their time.

Blog Post 4, Topic 3

By Patty Swing 

Maxine Hong Kingston and Sandra Cisneros are both writers who have written about their immigrant experience in the United States, however they differ in how their narrator views what they went through. Hong Kingston seems to have held a lot of bitterness and resentment towards her situation while Cisneros’ narrator presented a gradual loss of innocence. This can be seen in their difference in narration style.

The anger in the child’s voice resonates in the way Hong Kingston uses imagery, specifically when she is recalling tormenting the girl who seemed to be a reflection of everything she hated most about herself. “I hated… I hated… I hated… I hated her,” she had repeated (68). She criticizes every detail that connects back to her culture—the younger sister’s haircut, her struggle with speaking, and the way she seemed to embody their Chinese heritage. However, the manner in which she speaks to the younger sister sounds more like she is talking to herself. Hong Kingston separates herself in the text, trying to become more like her Mexican and black friends and mimicking how they acted. She even tries to hide the features that are associated with being Chinese and through most of the text, it seems as if she wished she was never Chinese. By the end of it the excerpt, though, it is revealed that it was not that she hated who she was, but that she hated how unprotected she felt. Because unlike the younger sister, there was no one there to protect her from the “strangers, ghosts, [and] boys” (73).

            Cisneros, on the other hand, uses the stream of consciousness that projects the naivety of Esperanza, the main character. Her thoughts are brief and are simple reiterations of what she is experiencing, and the implications of the events seem to go right over her head, even though it seems clear enough to the audience. In one of the excerpts, “My Name”, the two sisters take advantage of her desire to make friends. “If you give me five dollars I will be your friend forever. That’s what the little one tells me” (80). To her, there is nothing wrong with the proposal; it is reasonable and even cheap. However, the audience knows that they are using her. This naivety and ignorance is also present in “Those Who Don’t” because she notices the way other people behave in the neighborhood where she grows up as opposed to the way her and her family behave when they visit another neighborhood that is unlike theirs. “Those who don’t know any better come into our neighborhood scared… But watch us drive into a neighborhood of another color and our knees go shakity-shake and our car windows get rolled up tight and our eyes look straight” (82). There is an implication that she wants know the reason for that, but then she finishes off with, “Yeah. That is how it goes and goes,” which expresses a confused resignation that she might have to just accept the fact without ever knowing why. Much of what Esperanza witnesses is given the same response because it is like no one seems to want to tell her what is going on. She is being kept in the dark, blindly scrambling for the pieces to a puzzle that everyone around her has already put together and accepted. This slowly makes her resentful of her upbringing and the way things are—the fear, the unfairness, and the reality of it all.

            Both writers’ narratives hold a resentment that stirs bitter feelings toward their different upbringings. This creates an environment where they feel the need to make weapons of their own--a different image for Hong Kingston, a different name for Cisneros—to protect themselves because no one in their family would give them that protection.

Word Count: 634

Blog Post 4 Topic 4

In Maxine Hong Kingston’s “The Woman Warrior”, she portrays her own first-generation-immigrant experience as a child growing up in the United States in the 1940’s. The immigrant experience is certainly unique, but the mindset of people towards immigrants has definitely changed as time progressed.  Kingston depicts the struggle of language barrier that exists within immigrants through her writing. Although, the experience for those immigrating in to the United States today, will evidently be different from those that immigrated in the during Kingston time.

            Kingston predominantly portrays her own struggle as a child growing up in United States with the language barrier in her autobiography. Learning a new language is a challenge for most people, and since English is also not my first language, I can understand the difficulties that Kingston faces. “Speak up”, is what I would normally hear as Kingston also mentioned in her story. The level of confidence required to speak a completely new language and overcoming the fear of mispronouncing words is tremendous. After running the sentences repeatedly over and over in your own head, and being asked to speak it the second time only blows out the candle that was starting to catch fire. Kingston possibly felt this way and is potentially why she made a slow progress breaking out of her silence. Kingston even illustrates her struggle to understand the English language as an immigrant through the character “I”. She mentions that the Chinese “I” (我) having seven strokes and wears a hat. Thus, she cannot comprehend the simplicity in the “I” within the English language compared to the “I” in Chinese. Kingston also exemplifies the difficulty of expressing her speech in English through her sentence structure, for example, “Tatagimmesomecandy,” portraying her struggle in language as an immigrant.

            The immigrant experience Kingston had during her childhood was certainly more difficult compared to those immigrating nowadays considering the ongoing globalization. People are much more accepting of immigrants today compared to Kingston’s time. Historically, the United States was plagued with racist employment legislation, therefore Chinese immigrants did not receive as much opportunity and respect as they should have. Kingston’s father was an educated man with a degree but had to work a menial job due to racism. This would be completely different today as population of Asian-Americans are increasing and jobs are not given out to certain races but it considers skills and capabilities for the job. Although racism still exists, the mindset this generation is much more lenient and accepting, making the transition for those immigrating more welcoming. Without a doubt, I think that when cultures and people integrate it creates diversity which allows for society to thrive and improve as a whole.

            The experience that Kingston portrays in her story shows her hardships that resolves to a good ending. I would personally change the learning experience in this story and how Kingston chooses to portray herself. Overcoming the steep learning curve for a new language and the experience of being in a new country which is always fascinating, and I would choose to portray its optimism. In addition, I wouldn’t abuse the difference in race and nationality as much as Kingston has in her story, but rather embrace the fact that we are different and diverse, which would bring up the level of confidence in every immigrant.

Blog Post 4 - Topic 4 - Na

    In Maxine Hong-Kingston's The Women Warrior: Memoirs of a Girlhood Among Ghost, she depicts the journey of a young Chinese girl and how she faces challenges of growing up in an immigrant family. The protagonist is portrayed as shy and meek and that she lacks a voice. Hong-Kingston's description of the protagonist plays on stereotypes of people from a Chinese background and also people from Asian descent. This negative stereotype is reinforced by Hong-Kingston and presents a bad image to the general public that has no knowledge about people of Chinese descent.  Not only does Hong-Kingston utilize Chinese stereotypes in her writing her descriptions of other kids throughout the story stereotype them, such as labeling the kids of African American descent "black ghost" and described them as loud and obnoxious . Even though this is may come off racist, since the narrator is from the protagonist's point of view it is appropriate. The protagonist is a child so she probably doesn't know that it is wrong or correct, she is simply describing what she is experiencing. And in her day to day life, the protagonist is surrounded by Chinese people and the stark contrast between the mannerism of the Chinese and other children will stand out.

       In contrast, Hong-Kingston is able to show readers that the main character isn't always the meek and shy girl. Her usage of Chinese school to contrast the differences between the main character's  mannerism in public and Chinese school show readers how dynamic her lifestyle is. Even though Hong-Kingston's writing plays on a lot of stereotypes, they are appropriate because she is describing an experience that many Chinese children may have. Stereotypes obviously come from real life experiences and that is why they are labeled as stereotypes.  

       The main character shows how she has many fears such as being perceived by the pharmacist that her family is poor and that she is a beggar.  These fears eventually will lead her to corner another Chinese girl in the bathroom. She bullies the other Chinese girl because  she does not like that the other Chinese girl is perpetuating stereotypes that the protagonist doesn't like, such as not having a voice. Her anger and frustration at that Chinese girl mirrors how some people view Hong-Kingston's writing.  This whole issue revolves around people feeling the need to act or speak a certain way so that they don't give people a bad experience or memory about their minority. There is a lot of fear built on giving other people who aren't apart of your ethnic community a bad perception of your community.  This allows me to sympathize with how Hong-Kingston writes and why she needs to describe the protagonist like she does. The struggle to appropriately present yourself to the majority is still very apparent in modern society. For example, some Muslims may feel the need to act their best in public because they know that western society already has built up a negative view on Muslims.  As someone from a minority, I understand this feeling too. Every time a documentary, book, or movie is popularized I hyper analyze details from those books and movies and using my own experience and knowledge I decide what is appropriate and what isn't.  As someone who isn't Chinese,  I can't appropriately critic her writing  and if it really is true to a Chinese immigrants experience. In general,  as long as Hong-Kingston  doesn't present events or traditions that are obscure  as common,  her descriptions seem appropriate because it reminds me of my own experiences as a child of immigrant parents.  

Blog #4_Topic #2_Mingyu Zhang

In Adrienne Rich’s “Diving into the Wreck”, the poet depicts how a person dives into the deep ocean alone to explore the wreck from the past. There are many metaphors in this poem, and the wreck is one of the conceits among those metaphors. Throughout the poem, the wreck appears several times, and it is the driving force for the narrator to go down there. I want to argue that the wreck stands for the mistreatment of women and deprivation of human rights in general in the past.

When Rich wrote “Diving into the Wreck” by the year of 1973, American society was going through unprecedented civil movements and the liberation of women from domestic labors and limitation. During the time, many female poets expressed their support for feminism and basic human rights. As for Rich, she and her husband divorced about three years ago in 1970, leaving her unrestricted from domestic women’s dilemma between the burden of family and the expression of their own thoughts and rights in other social settings.

The language of “Diving into the Wreck” is very different from Rich’s previous works. The poem is in free verse, which has more freedom and various expressions than traditional metric poems. Many would argue that such change indicates her transformation from a wife to a feminist and free spirit.  However, there are still some repetitions between lines as well. For example, “I go down” appears two times as individual lines, which can be interpreted as the narrator’s persistent determination of going deeper into the sea. It indicates that either the wreck is something very attractive to the narrator, or it forces the narrator to go and explore it.

The narrator goes alone because “I am having to do this not like Cousteau with his assiduous team”, which suggests that Rich doesn’t want to depend on someone else. Jacques Cousteau was a French naval officer who built his reputation as a conservationist and marine scientist in the early twentieth century. However, the narrator decides to go alone because there is no one to trust. “I have to learn alone/ to turn my body without force/ in the deep element”, one has to face the past alone because it is exclusive to him or her, and it is not open to others.

The narrator’s purpose of coming to the wreck is to explore it and “I came to see the damage that was done/ and the treasures that prevail”. Women have been suffering from the patriarchy, and not all of them survive the pressure and expectations from society and the opposite sex. As a result, the poet wants to see what has been done to women in the past in the form of the wreck. Since at the time women were just beginning to awaken from the darkness, the narrator is also aware of the evil from the past so that he/she carries a knife.

Despite depicting the narrator as the only person going down to the wreck, Rich later in the poem uses first plural perspective “we”, and it is hard to tell whether the narrator is a woman or man. This could be the poet’s intention to see the past of both women and men. Although women are the primary victims, men also suffer because they are all “drowned”, and “we are the half-destroyed instruments”, which explains why people regardless of gender all have the same destiny --- death. The wreck is thus a symbol of the struggle and a resting place for women and men.

Rich is eager to find out what misfortunes happen to women, but all humans are bound by the rules of society and thus human rights are devalued no matter who is more authoritative.