The Shawl by Cynthia Ozick

The two sections of this novel are very emotionally charged. The first, "The Shawl" is a short story that really gets at the heart of the holocaust and what happened to millions of people. Compared to the rest of the novel, "the Shawl" section had a lot to do with how Rosa turned out for the rest of her life. The death of her little daughter, Magda, seriously disturbed her and her niece Stella. Rosa often talks of her niece as being "cold" or heartless. But being put through that situation would turn absolutely everyone cold.

The tone of "The Shawl" was dark, cold, and dragging. As you're reading it the descriptive words really do give you the feelings as if you are marching or walking forever, and the feeling of hopelessness really comes across within the writing. "Rosa did not feel hunger; she felt light, not like someone walking but like someone in a faint, in trance, arrested in a fit, someone who is already a floating angel, alert and seeing everything, but in the air, not there, not touching the road." This passage really brings about the feeling of selflessness. It is as if she was watching her own body go through the motions of this horrible act. She was no longer walking, she was just moving. She was doing what she had to do to try to keep herself and her child alive. But she is very aware that her child is dying. This can all be read through this language. This seeing oneself as an angel, or a ghost. It shows how the people who had gone through this must have had to shut off a part of themselves in order to continue. Rosa had something to keep going for, and that was her child, however without Magda there, I'm not sure if Rosa would have continued to move the way she was in order to reach some sort of hopefulness for her baby. However when Stella takes that hope away from her and little Magda is thrown into the electric fence, everything changes for her, for the rest of her life.

When The Emperor Was Divine by Julie Otsuka

The nameless characters of "When The Emperor Was Divine" seemed to be something the author did with great intention. This novel was written with very emotionless statements and very unexpressive details. Everything seemed to be written in a "matter-of-fact" way instead of greatly describing what was going on within the story. Each character, however, had their own personality, the mother being strong and not descriptive with her feelings around her children, the daughter being independent and intelligent, and the son innocent and fun-loving.

However, the characters not having names seems to really alter the way the reader understands the novel. I am very used to creating a mental image of the characters I am reading about, each image starting generally with the character's name. Without that information it is really hard for me to keep people separated and unique in my mind. However this was the intention of the author, Julie Otsuka. She wanted the reader to realize that this was happening to many, in fact, all Japanese people within this time period. The point of leaving the characters nameless was to say that it could be ANY Japanese family that she is writing about. I believe it also brings about the idea that the American people had turned a blind-eye to the entire situation. Americans did not know their names, nor did they care about who they were, where they were going, or what was happening to them. They raided their homes, stole from them, called them names and harmed them when they did see them. The fact that they were nameless definitely speaks to the fact that American people had no care to know their names and definitely disowned them as part of this country's community at the time.

Upon their return home, they were still separated from the community. They were not welcomed back with open arms and they were still thought of as a threat and someone who should not be living next door to other, "innocent" people. This stretched through out the entire nation. The nameless characters existed everywhere and their store was a shared one.

Push by Sapphire "Movie-Book Comparison"

The movie "Precious" was based off Sapphire's "Push". After re-watching the film there was one major difference between the book and the movie that struck me as important. The difference was the amount of Precious' ideas we actually hear as viewers, versus the amount of detail of her thoughts in the novel. Not having that constant dialogue about how Precious feels really takes away from some of the pain and the torment Precious goes through during this time in her life. For example, during the part of the novel where Precious is getting kicked out of school, there is major dialogue within her own mind about how much she hates Mrs. Lichenstein. You hear about how much she likes her math teacher and doesn't want to be kept from class. Also the character of "the file" is brought up in the novel, but is not mentioned, not even in the silences, in the film. The File is an important part of the novel that is almost entirely left out of the film. The File runs Precious' life and seems to determine who she is and who she will be. Leaving that out, not even focusing the camera on the file for a second, really takes that character right out of the film. In this scene within the novel Precious says, "Mrs. Lichenstein look at me like I got three arms or a bad odor out my pussy or something. What my muver gon' do I want to say. What is she gonna do? But I don't say that. I jus' say, 'My muver is busy.'" This is a great example of how important that internal monologue of Precious' character is. In the film all we see/hear is Precious sitting there, silent, and then, "My muver is busy." This leaves out everything about Precious' discomfort with the mention of her mother, and leaves out a lot of information. In that same scene, a lot is left out. Precious does not fight with Mrs. Lichenstein over being kicked out, she doesn't try to flip her out of the chair and go running out of the school. This changes Precious' character in the film greatly. It turns her from being aggressive and angry to passive. The changes from the film and the book are the reason why the film is an adaptation rather than a direct copy of the book.

Push by Sapphire "Precious' Character"

Precious was a character created by Sapphire in order to relay life stories from many other women to the public. Within the book Precious' character goes from an insecure, helpless, and self-proclaimed worthless woman to a strong, empowered, and intelligent person. At the beginning of the book Precious does not care about her education and seems to just get by off of her teacher's uncaring nature for her entire life. When she becomes pregnant with her second child from her father, her guidance counselor at the school suspends her, which only furthers her self-hate. I feel like the first few major events in this novel really shape who Precious is going to become. By being kicked out of school she is directed to the Each One Teach One program in which she is given a sense of community and a sense that someone cares about her and wants her to succeed. Ms. Rain does make it perfectly clear that the only way the class will succeed is if they want to succeed. She never babies her students, which causes Precious to begin to feel responsible for her own like, and then begins to turn on her mother in a more real way. After going to Each One Teach One Precious' mother starts to treat her like she shouldn't care about her education and tells Precious she is worthless and cannot be taught. Precious no longer listens to this and believes it like she always did, and after having her child and a huge blow out with her mother, Precious finally takes her life into her own hands. Also, through out the novel Sapphire writes Precious to be a dreamer. Precious often has fantasies or day dreams about being a different person or in a different situation. She dreams of marrying a light-skinned man who loves her, or being a white, blonde, beautiful girl. These fantasies shows how damaging the effects of abuse are on a person's self esteem. She doesn't think she can or ever will be good enough to have a man who loves her, and although she throws all that love she has to give into her baby Abdul, she still dreams of finding a man who will take care of her.

Fun Home by Alison Bechdel - Blog 4 "Sexuality"

The theme of sexuality is portrayed many different ways through out the novel. Bechdel starts by speaking of her father's sexuality after his death. She describes the shock of finding out that he had affairs with other men after coming out to her mother. She does not know how to feel about this information and the encounters are what I seem to believe lead Bechdel to write this story. Sexuality seems to be topic that was never talked about in their home, the father always forcing Alison to be more "girly" or feminine, probably to account for the fact that he has had to hide his true being for his entire life. The idea that his daughter may be a lesbian may have crossed his mind long before she ever noticed it herself. For example, on vacation Alison really tries to convince her parents to be topless on the beach. "In Cannes, I argued compellingly for the right to exchange my tank suit for a pair of shorts." (Page 73) Although the image attached to this quote is humorous, it is also very important. There is an image of a topless woman (or maybe a man with an extremely low-hanging chest) walking behind her and her brother while they are playing on the beach. This gives a very innocent and almost questionable vibe to when Alison actually realized there was something different about her. The images of woman being topless around her, just like men, may have influenced her in a way that she began to believe that how she was feeling was normal, at least somewhere in the world. She was always trying to convince her father to allow her to wear what she wanted, even as a young woman, and he never failed to make her into who he wanted her to be, instead of who she is. When Alison begins talking about her more personal sexual experiences with woman, she explains how they were almost more experimental or based upon research than emotion. This may be because emotion was so frowned upon through out her childhood, but most of where she got her information on sexuality from was books and reports, not on real life. When she does start to delve into reality, she becomes wrapped up in the sexual aspects of being a lesbian, and around that time learns about her father. I think that this makes Alison feel more like she is doing something wrong than just being who she is and having sexual interactions with who she wishes.

Fun Home by Alison Bechdel - Blog 3 "Faces"

The way that Bechdel portrays her family and herself through the facial expressions through out the novel really describes how she feels and how she sees her family. It is interesting to notice that when Bechdel is talking about her childhood and the things she was around to see, her father and mother almost always have the same exact facial expressions. They never change and they seem almost emotionless or blank. However, during flashbacks or descriptions of her parents' lives before she was born or before she can remember, their faces change. Her mother in particular is seen with multiple expressions, whether good or bad. I think this has a lot to do with Bechdel's image of her mother as an actress before she got married to her father and became emotionally blank. She even mentions this herself on page 72 when she writes, "In a passport photo taken eight years later, my mother's luminous face has gone dull." This shows how Bechdel sees her mother as an expressive human being up until being married with children for a few years. Her relationship with her husband had grown cold and passionless, while the children only picked at the scabs that were already there. In the images that display stories of the past, where Alison was either not around or not born yet, her mother is pictured with her hair down and wider, bright eyes. Although the images are in black and white you can clearly see the difference. Her father, although a less severe example, only shows emotion on his face when he is speaking to young men or also in memories or stories of the past. Bechdel never depicts him smiling in any other circumstance and his face stays pretty much static through out the rest of the novel. I think that this shows how Bechdel has viewed her parents through out her entire life. They are tired, bored with their relationship, and just going through the motions of the day. She rarely accounts for good moments between the two of them, and very few personal connections other than arguments were shown in the novel. Her father always seems unhappy, probably because he has been required to hide his true emotions his whole life.