The Shawl

Throughout the stories we have read in this class we have seen many different types of people go through many different hardships in life. From growing up in a poverty stricken area to being placed into a camp because they are different from everyone else, we have seen all sides. In the story, The Shawl,  we see three Jewish women who are about to be taken into a concentration camp during the time of the Nazi rise. It isn't blatantly expressed that these characters are Jewish but the subtle hints of the symbols Nazis used to separate and tag these people are shown. The title, The Shawl, represents a deeper meaning then what is seen in the word "shawl" as have all the other stories read in the class. the webster dictionary defines a shawl as a piece of fabric worn by women over the shoulder or head or wrapped around a baby. By the definition we see what the shawl can represent in the story, and the importance of it. By definition it can be a piece of fabric used to cover a baby which is important and signifies comfort, warmth and care. The Shawl in the story represents the same idea of a piece of comfort in these desperate times of much needed comfort. One of the women, Rosa, has an infant which she loves dearly. As any parent would, she puts her daughter, Magda, in front of any and everything she has or wants during these times. The shawl is a material object in the book which Rosa gives to her daughter to give her a sense of comfort. Instead of Magda showing emotion when she felt sad, hungry, or uncomfortable she would go back to the shawl in which her mother gave her. Even when she felt times of hunger or thirst she would go to the shawl and suck on that to get satisfaction instead of shedding tears. Overall, the shawl represented a crucial aspect to Rosa and Magda's relationship and also a crucial aspect to the story as a whole within the Holocaust. It represented, in the story, the sense of home and comfort that these people were stripped of when being brought to these camps because of their beliefs.

Devine Emperor: Minimalist?

In the case of When the Emperor Was Devine, the author would not be considered a minimalist. The tone of the novel follows the plot of the book. The way the author approaches the writing is more of a poetic view to the writing by expressing the feelings of the actions written throughout the words in the words and the arrangement of the story. For example, at the store with Joe Lundy in the beginning of the story, the tone of the conversation the women had with him was kind of mellow and sad. It was like the tone of the writing expressed the tone of the conversation and the situation. By reading what was going on you could feel the tension like you were in the room. The author, Otsuka, uses this  style in her writing of this novel to express the feelings of what is really going on. When you read the novel, there is a weary feeling like a feeling of overcast and mist among the situation in the novel. The feeling that something is being hidden or that their are some underlying events that aren't just blatantly put in the readers face. In the case of the U.S government, this is true. That feeling is given to all the citizens of the U.S when it comes to WWII and the things that happened during the war. Its like the facts are hidden somewhere deep in a vault which everyone knows is there but pretends to act like it doesn't exist. For the purposes of the story and what was supposed to be told, the voice of the novel was perfect. Otsuka is a minimalist in this instance because if she wasn't muting the fact of the story then the reader wouldn't be able to get the feelings that the characters have in the novel. The way she wrote the novel gives the reader that feeling that the main characters also have. In a way the tone of the story helps to get the reader to relate to the characters, which in this case, is hard because most of us "readers" wouldn't be able to place ourselves into their shoes. 

When the Emperor Was Devine

During the times or World War II Japanese Americans were one of the groups that were highly discriminated against. The American government sent all Japanese Americans to internment camps claiming that they were "protecting" them from the rest of the country. Trying to hide face that we had done something wrong, america left most of these fat out of the history books. Many students have no idea exactly what happened to the Japanese americans during World War II, or have even heard about these people being put into these camps. America, being a super power didn't want to be seen as this country who  did these things that other countries had done. We portray ourselves in America as the worlds savior,  or the worlds super hero. Anytime something happens in another country we are right there to help, but in the case of our own country help isn't there and we try to cover up the wrong doings that occur. America has been in shame of this fact that we discriminated against our own people blocking them off from the rest. A new age racism placed together by fear of what could happen or the worst case scenario of Japanese spies taking information and relaying it back to the Japanese government. Even within the first chapter of this novel, we can see all those facts come out in the scene with Joe Lundy in the store. Instead of acknowledging the fact that the japanese women was going to be placed in and internment camp because of his government, he tried to sway away from that fact by giving the women something for free as if that would be a nice gesture before she left for the camp. Also, we could see that the japanese family was just a regular Japanese-American family. They had their patriotic flags and also her victory garden shovel, showing that they were a patriotic american family like all others.

Socities Failure's

As we spoke upon in class, the systems set in place to help women and people like Precious failed in the case of this story. Every system from the school system down to the social system failed Precious by the fact that no one truly helped her. As we seen, even her family support system had failed her. If it wasn't for one person stepping up to the plate an reminding Precious that she was someone, and was important the mindset for Precious would have remained the same. We see this in many communities around the world, and it isn't just the urban communities like Precious's either. In my small town of Norwich Ct, the same situation occurs. Many families who aren't able to afford the necessities are stuck in a bind of using the services given to them by society. In most cases, these services aren't anywhere near the services that money could buy. Insurance policies, housing, even Wick given by the state or society are usual the lowest of all possibilities. For example, in the cases of food stamps and public housing these people are put into the low income areas where the people in that area are just like them and also areas where the facilities are barely livable. In the cases of wick checks, given to families who cant afford the essentials for their children, the products they are able to get are only limited. Certain cereals and juices are the only products the families are able to get for free. Most stores make the wick check holders get the cheapest products in the store. Insurance policies work the same way. Just like in the movie John Q., the man held people in the hospital hostage because he wasn't able to get his son the surgery he needed. This was due to the fact that his insurance policy did not cover the surgery but if he had money to be afford a better policy then the surgery would have been done right on the spot. Society is run based off money, and as you grow older you realize how true that fact really is. Society, in general, failed Precious based off the fact that she didn't have money and the place she lived. The fact of the matter is that the more money you have the better life you can live in the United States. It is wrong and injustice and also is the complete opposite ideal of the U.S constitution but it is the facts.

Abuse, Power and Survival

         The themes Sapphire gives in this novel show the affects and causes of power, abuse and survival. Through the story of precious's life we see each of these themes to the extreme. From a young age being abused made Precious become a strong but vulnerable person. As we could see in her normal conversations with people, the abuse made her into a defensive person. When someone tried to even just talk to her she put up her guard and became defensive.Even in school Precious become defensive with her peers and teachers. The abuse lead to her not knowing what "caring" was. She became accustomed to what was surrounding her and took the abuse as an everyday life situation. Not only was it the physical abuse which she seen but also the abuse in form of neglect. Through the novel, there was only one person that believed in Precious and wanted to help. Every other character in her life just passed her on to the next person as though they weren't her problem. This lead to Precious being ignorant to the fact that there were people out there who may have cared and could have helped. Instead she lived up to the expectations that people set for her instead of expectations she set for herself. One positive that came from her abuse was the power she had to be a strong women. Taking all that beating and abuse lead Precious down the path to power, and empowerment. Eventually by the end of the novel, she learned through the help of other to take that strength she gained from the abuse and turn it into power to move on. Regardless of what happened in her life, she was still strong even though she wasn't knowledgable about her surroundings and what was going on. These two themes together in the novel lead to the third theme of survival. With the abuse she endured throughout her life making her a stronger more powerful woman she was able to survive in a world where no one cared to help her succeed. These three themes together play as the background for Precious's life and struggle from becoming a weak, dependent individual onto a strong willed independent mother.

Graphic Novel vs. Novel

      The novel Fun Home has been unique in comparison to the other novel read in class. The difference isn't in the lessons taught throughout the book or the underlying messages giving to the reader the true difference is in the layout of the novel. Alison's use of the graphic novel in this stories case was completely necessary to accomplish her goal. Many pictures throughout the novel showed the seriousness and captured the reader by giving them a snapshot or several snapshots of that one moment in time.  A huge aspect of this novel is the fact of secrets that are hidden between the lines of something larger. The layout of the graphic novel is the same also by showing some hidden meaning in the pictures. As we discussed in class, the characters in the pictures didn't show too much emotion. Also, the pictures gave a hint as to the secrets which the author was speaking of throughout the words of the novel. The pictures gave meeting point between the thoughts of the reader and the words of the book. In the case of the mother, absence was seen. In the words she wasn't expressed to much, even in the graphics of the novel this is seen. The mother is absent in most of the pictures within the novels. Without the graphics in this novel the author wouldn't have been able to give the reader the tools they need to realize exactly what was going on. The graphics in this novel were completely necessary to get the message Allison wanted to send out to her readers. Sometimes, in novels, the words overwhelm the reader by taking their attention off the plot and onto figuring out what the words really mean. In the case of Fun Home, the pictures helped to make a visual image in the readers head as well as the image given by the words. Instead of spending time trying to decipher the word, the reader can focus more on the plot by taking the graphics and the minimal words together to create a overall image of what is truly happening.