Gender Identification

Alison, in the novel, grows up in a small town in which she described as a provincial hamlet. This meant that it was a really small town where most the community members contained the same views. Many members of the community she lived in possessed the same views of society and how people should be, but throughout the novel we see that Alison's family does not follow this "provincial" point of view. With her father having some gender identity issues, her mother being resigned and off in the background, and also herself having some gender identity issues, we can see that they did not fit in with their societies views of how life should be. Helen (the mother) was not very present throughout the novel, she is barely spoken of. Alison has a greater connection to her father then her mother which could be a reason behind why she has some gender identity problems throughout the novel. When a women doesn't have that connection with her mother it can cause some distance between their feminine side. on the other hand, Alison's father almost forced her to become a "feminine" women instead of the person she wanted to be.  He would tell her what to wear and that she had to wear the certain things and act a certain way because she was a girl.  This definitely contributed to the gender identification difficulty that Alison faced. Also, with her mom not being in the picture as much as she should, Alison was never really able to have that feminine connection with her. As we can see, throughout the novel Alison really only has good connections with her masculine side being her brothers and her father. No other women in her life were really spoken upon, which is some of the reason in which she has the gender identification issues and is almost a direct resemblance of what her father has been going through over the course of the story.

      In Alison Bechdel's novel, Fun Home, Alison touches up on some key life changing factors and also some situations that readers may be able to connect with. The story revolves around the relation ship between Alison (or the main character) and her father. One of the most important parts of the novel was when Alison began to become suspicious about her fathers sexuality. This picture is one of the illustrations from the novel which explains one of the situations where Alison began to have suspicions of her father. As you can see in this comic strip, Alison sees her father putting on bronzer. This is where she begins to question his sexuality. Eventually, Alison's father comes out to her and tells her that he truly was a homosexual. She finds out that the man she thought was one of her fathers "friends" was really one of the men he was having an affair with. We find out at age nineteen that Alison her self was also attracted to the same sex. After reading this section in the book i began to question what was going on. Is Alison truly homosexual or is it just a phase? Maybe it was just something that was in her from the beginning? With Alison's father coming out the closet and explaining to her that he was homosexual gave Alison a comfortability with the face the homosexuality was perfectly fine. Even before she 100 percent knew that her father was that way, she witnessed some things that may have or may not have been signs. These signs, subconsciously had a part to Alison's acceptance to her also liking the same sex.  After Alison found herself she was more comfortable with the fact that this homosexuality could be accepted by her father because it is already something he also feels and understands.  

By the end of the story by Julia, you can see that each character had changed in some way. The novel begins with a simple family story by each girl of their childhood. As the story goes on and the plot begins to unfold, each sister moves into their own future path. We are introduced to them as a "family" showing how each one was in the sense a little bit different but the same in some characteristics also. Fro example. at the beginning all of the sisters possessed some of the same attributes. They were all strong and came off as "family oriented"people. As the story began to unfold and the true meaning as to why the family was in the Dominican Republic came to the open, we began to really see who each character was. In the case of Minerva and Mate, they both were on the same path with more of a following form Mate. But, as the revolution began to become important to each of them, Mate followed a different path. For Minerva and Mate, the revolution changed them. Becoming so consumed in changing the future of the country caused both of these sisters to change drastically throughout the story. Minerva always had the fight in her as we could see from the first chapters. She came off as a outspoken, persistent person who was very strong. As she began to become more intertwined with the resolution, these attributes came out even more. Instead of sticking to her traditional religious views she stepped out the box and stayed persistent and strong for something she believed in. Also, the revolution made a drastic change on Minerva's love life. Before the revolution Minerva was not to interested int eh man she ended up marrying but after she grew a love for the revolution she began to grow a love for him.  Mate has the most drastic changes in character because she went from being so immature and innocent into a grown, understanding, and strong young women.

Mate 1960: La Victoria

During times in prison, Mate was an influential figure for her peers. In the Mate section of 1960, Alaverez speaks on how Mate was able to smuggle a notebook into the prison she was being held in. In this notebook she was able to write her thoughts and also the lessons which she would teach her students in the classes and discussions they held daily. In these meetings Mate along with her peer women political's, told the other women that  they must, "Never believe them. Never fear them. Never ask them anything." These three sayings were the three rules that the women went by. The "them" in which Mate spoke of were the people of dictator Trujillo. Throughout this chapter, Mates strength is shown in multiple ways with the women she speaks to and the bold moves she makes. These three rules which the women stayed true to were the three golden rules that helped to keep the secret society she was trying to build together. These three rules helped to keep these women true to what they believed in. Trujillo would try to tell the what he wanted and brain wash their thoughts so that they to would follow his rule and become disciplined to his ideas. If these women were to give in and not follow these three rules the hope for them would be lost and forgotten as they struggled to keep their faith. As a character, we watch Mate grow from being a young innocent girl into a very secure strong willed person able to show others her ideas and whats right as opposed to what dictator Trujillo wanted the prisoners to think or the country as a whole to believe. As a class, when we first began to read the book and took notes on each character we started that Mate was young, innocent, spoiled and eager to please but here we see her growing up and becoming  a women that posses some of the character traits of each of her sisters, but mostly following the traits of Miner

Stepping into their Shoes

         Each character in Julia Alvarez's story give a different dynamic to the legend being told.  From the beginning four chapters of the story, we are introduced to the family of the narrator. Each family member contributed to taking the reader beyond the story, by giving each person a voice. In each chapter, the main character changes and we get to see the life or a story through that one characters eyes. Also, within the case of the family characters, each one had a different personality but contain some of the same attributes showing that they are too related. With each character, she expresses the things they do in great detail which gives the reader a view of what is going on. She goes in depth about each character, such as the father. She speaks on him drinking, but never says that he is drunk but that she head the sound of the glass rum bottles clanking against each other. Without the characters of the story, Alvarez wouldn't be able to give the full effect of the story and also she most likely wouldn't be able to tell it. The thoughts of the people involved and her family give her a sense of peace at mind when she's telling the story. At the beginning, it is apparent that she is tired of telling the legend every year or month at the same time. She must mentally prepare herself to tell the story the way people want to hear it. So, with each of these characters being so dynamic and containing such a huge role in the story it makes it much easier on her. She does accomplish the goal of using the characters to take us beyond the legend and into the legend. As a reader we can somewhat relate or place ourselves in the shoes of the characters and at times close our eyes to visualize the events and situations they go through. The characters give the story a personality in which the reader can and must relate.

I Am An Emotional Creature: Women's Sixth Sense

"I am an emotional creature, Things do not come to me as intellectual theories or hard-shaped ideas. . ." In this poem, I Am An Emotional Creature, Eve Ensler gives the thoughts of young women as they are passing from childhood into adult hood. From a mans perspective, women are very emotional in most aspects of life. When something goes wrong, right or in between it is easy to see what they are feeling. Many people assume that women just aren't very strong with their emotions. But when it comes down to the facts women truly are. Unlike men, women have a sort of "sixth sense" and can see and feel things men cant.

I love being a girl.

I can feel what you're feeling

as you're feeling it inside

the feeling

before.

Stemming from the true emotions and thoughts, women are able to connect with these strong emotions and feel what others are feeling. Reading this poem made me realize that this is true. Looking back into my life and my experiences with women, i could see that this does happen. In funerals, you see women crying a lot more often. In some cases it is because of the loss of the person but for the ones who didn't really know that person personally, they still have those emotions and shed tears because they feel the same pain as other around them. Looking even further into my experiences with women, I could notice times when they have the "sixth sense." Many people call this sixth sense the "motherly instincts" which only women can posses. When i was younger, my mother would be able to tell when i was feeling down or what i was doing without me ever saying anything. It was the motherly instincts that kept her able to know my well being before i could even get a chance to explain how i felt and what it was. These "senses" stem from the strong emotions of the women in which Eve speaks about int his poem. 

Underlying Facts

"The clitoris is simply a bundle of nerves: 8,000 nerve fibers, to be precise." This fact  found in Woman: An Intimate Geography, by Natalie tells more then just the fact behind the vagina. Eve Ensler put power and meaning behind the fact when she said "who need a handgun when you have a semiautomatic." For women all over the world, this has to be very empowering and moving. Women posses twice the power of men even though men have been seen in society and portrayed in society as the "dominant" ones, women still posses the most power. As crazy as it seems to hear, most women don't realize that the world revolves around them. As much as men try to claim that they are dominant or better then women the truth is that everything men do revolves around the women. This comes back to the anatomy of humans: male or female. With the female clitoris containing twice the amount of nerves as the mans penis, it would be a direct correlation between the importance of women and men in society. Women carry children, and are the only way to reproduce. A man needs a women for most things in life or some guidance from a woman. When its all said and done, anything a man does can be traced back to a women.  The want for a job that pays well, the need for a nice car or clothing, at the end it all comes down to the want and need for a woman.