Final Blog Post: What is Women's Literature?

            Women's literature is an important means of expression that has helped women all over the world for many years. Through out the course of this semester every novel and story we have read has to do with a struggle or accomplishment made by women or families in which the writing itself was a means of expression. For example, in "The Vagina Monologues" by Eve Ensler, many women's stories are expressed in order to allow those women to get their inner feelings out in the open and help them to move on or move past difficult moments in their lives.

            Women's literature tells a story of life. It explains and depicts the different struggles and successes that women all over the world share. The fiction novel, "Push" by Sapphire was a great example of this idea. Sapphire took the stories of many young women that she has met and combined them all into one character as a means to tell a story that is relatable and understandable to women everywhere. It was a story of pain and torture that ends with a woman on her way to success, or at the very least making progress. Novels such as these are written to provide hope and understanding for people everywhere. The readers of these novels gain a sense of comfort in knowing things can change or become better as long as a little effort is put into it.

            In "The Shawl" by Cynthia Ozick, the main character Rosa is one who provides a sense of hopelessness or selflessness who has devoted her entire life to the honoring and remembrance of her dead daughter, Magda. Although through most of the book Rosa is a character without a main grip on reality, she still is a character many people who have lost a loved one can connect with. Rosa, even before her daughters death, showed her sense of selflessness in this passage. "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." Her grip on reality suffered greatly through out her life and through the reading of this novel a woman can get a sense of the struggle of another.  This story telling helps heal, and helps cope. By  reading novels such as this, and Push, a woman can understand how easily life can change and their stories can influence and change the path of it's readers.

            There are many moments in a woman's life that are celebrated or honored in some way. Through the reading of these novels a pattern of definition emerges. The birth or death of a loved one, especially in Rosa's case, both the birth and death of her daughter all at once defined the rest of her life. It was something she could never forget about or never honor enough. She spent the rest of her life chasing after her daughter who had long since passed. Getting an education, such as in Precious' case in "Push", or Dorothy Allison in "Two or Three Things I Know for Sure", is an event in a woman's life that is meant to be celebrated and talked about in order to influence other women to get their education. In both "I Am An Emotional Creature" and "The Vagina Monologues" by Eve Ensler both celebration of personal achievements and venting in anger is present in the pieces about other women's lives. These stories allowed women to talk about situations they may have never gotten a chance to talk about and shows it's readers that by talking, healing can occur.

            This semester was focused around healing. Each and every piece of writing we have read linked back to the idea of storytelling as a means of healing, and reading as a means of healing. All of the stories showed women that it is possible to be okay after a bad situation, or showed it's readers that change can happen. These messages are important in the continuation of women's literature and the success of change in women's lives.

Two or Three Things I Know For Sure by Dorothy Allison (Post 2)

Dorothy Allison describes her life and the things she has been through not to get pity or respect, even, but instead to help others understand what it took her to change her life. She was born and raised in a place that not too many people got away from. It seemed as though her family had a written history that only kept repeating itself, until she was old enough to realize she wasn't going to sit down and take that just like everyone else did. Through her childhood abuse Allison felt as though she was unworthy of anything more than what she was getting, but luckily she gained the courage to stand up for herself on her sixteenth birthday when she openly admitted to her step father who had been molesting her and abusing her for years, that she would no longer take it and no longer allow him to touch her. This was the first step in her healing process.

As we discussed in class I think it was important for Allison to write about her life and her troubles in order to put them in the past and move on. Writing is a very well known form of healing and it allows a person to take their issues and no longer keep them imprisoned within themselves. By letting the general public read about her life she is allowing those issues to become public, and not private and held within herself. Now it is the reader's problem, it is their job to sort out the difficulties and understand the mentalities of her writing. She is freed from the grasp of her untold secrets. She talks about her sexuality also, as not being a product of her abuse, but instead being who she is. And I think it takes a lot of courage to discuss something that would probably be on the minds of many people while reading her story. By expressing her emotions and her appeals and imperfections she allows the reader to step back and take a look at their own life and discover things about themselves that they may have, not only been keeping from others, but also keeping from themselves. Her story was self-discovery, and by doing so she was able to release some of the built up issues she kept within herself for so many years.

Two or Three Things I Know For Sure by Dorothy Allison

I think it would be appropriate for my first blog post about this collection to be about the title and the meaning of the "Two or Three Things I Know For Sure..." passages within the book itself. These passages exist at the end of almost all of the stories Allison tells. Each displays a bit of knowledge, or lack of knowledge, on something relating to her life or the story she's told. Each piece describes something she has learned or something she can't learn due to lack of knowledge, or wanting to know, and leads the reader into a path of thinking for the continuation of the book. I think Allison clues the reader in greatly on their purpose when she writes, "Behind the story I tell is the one I don't. Behind the story you hear is the one I wish I could make you hear. Behind my carefully buttoned collar is my nakedness, the struggle to find clean clothes, food, meaning, and money. Behind sex is rage, behind anger is love, behind this moment is silence, years of silence." (Page 39). In this quote Allison describes how there are things she wants to tell by writing her story that can not be said through any amount of description she can give. I feel as though the "Two or Three Things..." pieces she can get across a story that she cannot tell any other way. It was mentioned in a class of ours that if you take those pieces out of the context of her stories and read them seperately it gives the reading a totally different feel. That "different feel" could very well be the "Story... I wish I could make you hear" that she mentions within her writing. I think it is also important to note that this piece ends a piece about her being unbreakable and not allowed to be beautiful and is a transition into the story of her being raped at the age of five. I feel it is important to note that she is not being dramatic when she says this, but is merely trying to convince the reader that she may know something about being scared or beaten down, or alone. Each one of her bits of knowledge thrown into her story lines acts as a transition between what she's experienced and what she's gained, and shows the reader that there is more to the story than merely what is on the paper.

The Shawl by Cynthia Ozick post 3

Motherhood completely changes a woman. Once a woman has a child it is as if the whole world view shifts and becomes only about that child. Another issue is losing that child. Whether it is immediately after birth or at any point after, losing a child is a traumatic experience that a woman may never completely recover from. Especially in the situation Rosa was in. We are never completely told who the father of Magda is, but Stella is convinced Rosa was raped by S.S, and the child was "one of them". However, Rosa denies this. Then, Rosa loses Magda by the hand of an S.S. officer, but she puts the blame on Stella. Magda was the only thing Rosa had that still remained hers. Magda was Rosa's baby and they couldn't take that from her. She lost everything during the holocaust, but she still had Magda. Magda and the Shawl were all that remained in her possession. And that's not to say that all Magda was to Rosa, was a possession, but I think that that was part of it. Magda was something of normality, of innocence, that she could hold onto. And it was taken from her. After that Rosa was never the same. She couldn't move on from the past and admit to herself that her baby is dead. Rosa needed to remember that she was a mother first. She would do anything to protect her baby. And I think she has guilt that she didn't do anything to stop the S.S. from killing her child. She wouldn't have succeeded, obviously, but that doesn't logically help her guilt.

The Shawl by Cynthia Ozick post 2

Is Rosa crazy? It is something that is definitely left up to the opinion of the reader. Through out the entire novel Rosa seems to personify her daughter Magda's shawl as being alive and a part of Magda. When she receives the shawl in the mail from Stella, she can't even open it without almost ritualizing the box it came in. She has these illusions, or so it seems, about Magda still being alive. She claims when she smells the shawl it brings Magda back. She appears to be alive and well, living her life, married and working. All of this sort of speaks to Rosa's apparent insanity. She doesn't seem old enough in the novel to be losing her mind, however the things that she was put through during the Holocaust may have aged her more than a normal person, and she was slowly losing a grip on reality. When she meets Persky, she automatically assumes that he is a threat. She thinks that everyone is out to get her in some way. She even thinks that she seems crazy to the people around her, and I think that may have been her admitting that she is. She also explodes on the manager of the hotel on the beach that had barbed wire fences around its perimeter. She couldn't understand that it was just to make it a private beach or private hotel. It is as if normal things that happen within her life, such as meeting people, or common decencies such as keeping a hotel private, are all attacks on her personally. I wouldn't say that Rosa is completely insane. She has reason to feel the way she feels: threatened, worried, lost, confused, sad. She was put through so much torture in her life that anything good seems undeserved or worthless to her. Her insane behavior in reality makes perfect sense.

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.

Fun Home by Alison Bechdel - Blog 2 "The House"

"But over the next eighteen years, my father would restore the house to its original condition, and then some. He would perform, as Daedalus did, dazzling display of artfulness. He would cultivate the barren yard into a lush, flowering landscape. He would manipulate flagstones that weighed half a ton and the thinnest, quivering layers of a gold leaf. It could have been a romantic story like in "It's A Wonderful Life", when Jimmy Stewart and Donna Reed fix up that big old house and raise their family there. But in the movie when Jimmy Stewart comes home one night and starts yelling at everyone it's out of the ordinary. Daedalus, too, was indifferent to the human cost of his projects."

The family house not only provides the title of the memoir but it is the center of the family. Alison's father is obsessed with fixing up an old home for them to live in, and he makes the journey of rebuilding and redecorating this home more important than anything else in his life. The home is supposed to be a place of comfort, of rest, and of family, but through her father's struggles to finish the home and make it better than it ever was actually results in a family that does not want to be around him. There was always work to be done in the home and he made sure that his children were there to help him. Wether they were told to clean, fix, assist, or put away his children despised the home for it's great deal of effort necessary to make it what it was. But Alison's father made sure to create something beautiful from something ugly and his pure passion for it's completion seemed to have struck Alison. As the quote above explains, her father paid no mind to the pain and turmoil his remodeling caused his family. He would be aggressive and angry when things no longer went his way, making the home a place of discomfort and terror instead of love and security.

"And of course, my brothers and I were free labor. Dad considered us extensions of his own body, like precision robot arms."

This act left his children to despise the house they grew up in. It made them not want to come home and inevitably drove them out. Because their father's passion was not shared by all, the family was distraught and no longer connected.

Fun Home by Alison Bechdel

I have never read a graphic memoir before and upon starting "Fun Home" by Alison Bechdel I was a bit intimidated. I was not sure if the way the novel was presented would encourage me to continue reading or distract me from the actual story line. After the first chapter I was definitely enthralled with how the story was written. The images not only added meaning to what was being described but they give away hints of what the story is based on. The expressions on the characters' faces adds another dimension to classic novel reading that I have never before experienced. Also, the way the characters are depicted gives clues as to what will come next in the story such as not only Alison's sexuality but also her father's. For example, although it may sound stereotypical, the way Alison and her father were depicted through out the books: what they were wearing, doing...etc., lead me to believe they had a different sexuality, which is then proven in chapter three.

The images that accompany the writing add a bit more to the story line that could not be told in description. Instead of leaving the imaging up to the reader, Bechdel displays the situations for us with just enough detail to make the story remain relatable. The images are in black and white, which allows the reader to fill in the blanks, or create more to the story instead of reading it flatly and passively. Although I have not yet finished reading the memoir I have found myself captured within the quirky remarks and sarcastic facial expressions depicted on the pages.

All in all I think without the images the story would just be another novel to sit on a shelf. As the story unfolds so do the characters' personalities and we do not only get to imagine the progression of life for these people but we get see it in front of us.

The Purpose of Writing Stories like "In The Time of The Butterflies" by Julia Alvarez

In The Time of The Butterflies was a piece of writing created to retell the historical stories of the Mirabal sisters. Stories such as these are important to read and keep around in order to inform others who may not have been aware of the common issues of other cultures and lifestyles of their way of life as well as the dangers of certain political systems. Within the United States we are very lucky to have a democracy with laws that protect our people. By reading "In The Time of The Butterflies" it is easy to see that not all people are fortunate enough to have that safety and security within their lives and countries. The story recounts the way of life of each of the sisters, and describes what events occurred within their lives that led to the death of Maria Teresa, Minerva, and Patricia. Through this recollection we learn how Dede has dealt with the loss of her family, and how she has kept the story of oppression and rebellion alive in order to honor her sisters.

Books such as these are an important part of history. Although the entire story may not be fact, or historical truth, they do bring on common themes of struggle, oppression, rebellion, and the strive for equality and the fall of a dictatorship which brought harm to so many innocent and loving people. The rebellion movement was only meant to raise awareness as to what is wrong with the way the country was being run and to make enough people join in order to do something about it.

In The Time of The Butterflies - Julia Alvarez: Mate's Timeline

Maria Teresa's Timeline of Important Events

• Minerva gives Mate her first diary for her First Communion
• Receives her first pair of high heels (makes her feel grown)
• Mate is influenced by Minerva  (who she looks up to the most) and lies to the principal of her school
• Mate finds out about Minerva's anti-governmental attitude
• Her opinions of Trujillo flip flopped as she started to see both sides of the issue
• Hilda gets caught by police and Mate needs to bury the diary.
• 1953 - December - Mate's father dies.
• December 15, 1953 - Mate learns about her father's affair and other children
• Receives her new diary from Minerva
• January 1, 1954 - Mate has her first kiss with Berto
• July 3, 1954 - Mate graduates
• Refuses to marry
• Mate goes to school with Minerva
• Minerva marries Manolo and becomes pregnant
• Changes her major to philosophy
• Moves in with Minerva
• Mate is informed of Manolo's affair
• Mate takes care of their baby in order to fix their marriage
• Meets Palomino and learns of the revolution and the weapons
• Mate moves out of Minerva's house and into her own apartment in a "humble part of town"
• Realizes her love for Palomino
• Joins the revolution
• Mate and Palomino get married
• They have a child together
• Mate becomes arrested for being involved with the revolution with Palomino
• Eventually gets put on house arrest and goes to visit her husband in prison.
• On her way home Mate, Minerva, and Patria are murdered for being revolutionaries. 

In The Time of The Butterflies - Julia Alvarez

The writing style of this novel is definitely not something I am used to. Not only was it difficult to train my eye to pay attention to who was talking but also what dates they were talking about. The fact that the entire novel was a back-and-forth not only in voices but in time created a really difficult flow. Out of all of the books we have read thus far this semester, this is my least favorite. Although the story is a great accomplishment when it comes to telling a story that many people can relate to, of struggle, loss, suffering, and personal growth, the way it was written really threw me off. The novel starts off with the voice of Dede, starting in 1994. The first chapter of the book was not that hard to get through, she talked about herself in a way I am comfortable reading. When she begins talking about the past it was easy to see where the change happened. There is a break in the text and it begins with the words "she remembers". If the entire book had these fantastic clues it would have been a lot easier to get through. The easiest pieces for me to read were in Maria Teresa's voice. Her journal-entry style was clear and her voice was younger which made it feel more direct and personal. I felt like I could connect to her voice much easier than the other three voices through out the story. The way that Alvarez writes these four voices is a unique technique to get her readers to see a difference between the girls. I feel like with all the differences in the way the women speak and write shows a clear difference in personality and experience.

The Vagina Monologues - Eve Ensler (Performed v. Written)

It was a very different experience watching some of these monologues being performed rather than just reading them in privacy. The performances really bring a massive uncomfortable feeling that you can't get from just reading them alone. Ensler created these monologues with the intention of them being performed which I believe says a lot about them. Because she wanted them to be performed, you can really get the sense that she wanted the information and topics included in the monologues to be publicized. When you read these monologues at home in your own time they may have uncomfortable topics but generally speaking, they do not make you want to walk away from the book. When someone is sitting in front of you, acting out, reading, or personalizing the stories it becomes real and all of a sudden the content is ten times as uncomfortable. When we watched "The Flood" in class it was absolutely awkward to watch Ensler perform. While reading this monologue I was not particularly uncomfortable. The story was a strange experience for this woman to have but all in all it was a pretty okay read. When Ensler performed the reading on stage, she gave the reading more meaning, her voice would climb and fall with expression which would almost make your skin crawl when you thought about exactly what she was talking about. If it wasn't for the comic relief she includes in the stories I do not think I would be able to watch without feeling so uncomfortable I would have to turn away.

The Vagina Monologues - Eve Ensler (Response 3)

It is hard for me to explain how I feel about this collection of stories. While reading I was made to feel very uncomfortable. I kept wanting to put the book down either due to stories that upset me due to their content or were topics that I have never talked about or wanted to talk about. But I feel like Ensler was trying to do this. She purposely wrote her stories to make us uncomfortable. This way, we could get through the uncomfortable feelings and move on to openness. The openness was her ultimate goal. She wants people to be okay with not only talking about the vagina but also about women and the way women feel. There are so many "secrets" and hidden stories in a woman's life that she has been told from day one to keep from others. This book opens up all of these stories, dissects them, and spits them back out for the public to see. So of course as a young woman I feel uncomfortable reading these stories. I found myself through out the readings saying in my head, "Okay, we are not supposed to talk about this. I can't read this, I can't finish this story." And even just recognizing that I was doing this proves what Ensler was talking about. She wants women to be comfortable with themselves and proud to be who they are, which women are told to hide and suppress for their entire lives.

In class we talked about the advertisements for this book and play when it first gained popularity. I cannot imagine driving down the highway reading the word "VAGINA" in huge letters on a billboard. It is hard enough for me to say the word without feeling strange, but to be constantly reminded of it's presence really serves the purpose Ensler was trying to serve. It reminded women and men that the vagina is a part of the body that should not be hidden and forgotten about. She wanted people to be shocked and uneasy about her topics so that people will be aware of the issues that surround it.

The Vagina Monologues - Eve Ensler (Response 2)

Ensler's purpose when it comes to The Vagina Monologues is to raise awareness of violence against women and to also celebrate being female. All of the stories within the collection bring attention to one of these two topics, although I feel more of them are focused around raising awareness. Her bias is always to make a woman feel comfortable with expressing the people that have put their vaginas down through out their life. Very few of the stories actually celebrate how wonderful the organ is. Most of them are a combination. Ensler will tell about the hardships these women have faced and (sometimes) how they've overcome them. She will also tell about discovery of self through the vagina. She tells of ways to become whole and complete as a women and as a human by sexually exposing oneself in a healthy manner. She wants women to experience what it is to love your vagina and know exactly what it looks/feels like.

At different points through out the book Ensler includes "Vagina Facts". This is what I think kind of sets the tone for the book. Although the stories range from self-discovery to mutilation, these facts make the mix a bit unbalanced. With the inclusion of these facts the reader gets a sense of how the vagina is seen/valued/hated across the world. They tend to lay on the side of violence and mutilation. This changes the purpose of her writing from celebration to awareness. She talks a lot about the genital cutting in Africa. These "Vagina Fact" portions describe how women in Africa view their vaginas and in the stories that follow it shows how these women are mistreated and abused. I feel that this really sets the tone for most of the book and pushes her purpose towards violence.

The Vagina Monologues - Eve Ensler (Response 1)

I think it is very important to mention that Ensler wanted these monologues to be performed. The whole context of the book surrounds expression and finding deeper meaning. In order for these emotions and feelings to come across clearly, they need to be given a voice. While reading I often found myself speaking the words on the page rather than reading them. It gave them more meaning. Ensler wanted to give vaginas a voice. Let them speak for themselves. Without the voice attached to the readings half of her purpose is gone. This voice is very important. Through speech and writing we are given freedom. So many women have been deprived of that freedom and her interviews and stories allow these women to be open with themselves, their past, and their future. It's more than just a story about vaginas and the people who value them, or are afraid of them, or don't know how to talk about them. The book is about experiencing who we are as women. It is about giving us the freedom to choose for ourselves and live for ourselves rather than living to please others.

The embodiment of the vagina gives it personality. It allows us to separate the vagina from being just a body part to being something alive, and breathing, with passion and memory. It changes the way we perceive the vagina by making it into something bigger than a sexual organ. The stories attached to this body part outweigh all other parts of the body. The stories give it meaning, and passion. By seeing (or reading) these stories performed, they put a person in place of a vagina, making it seem real and meaningful.

"A Wall of Rising Fire" by Edwidge Danticat

This blog post about Edwidge Danticat's "A Wall of Rising Fire" is going to take a look at the meaning and significance of the title.

Through out the story there is a conflict that grows from start to finish. It is a struggle between doing what is right for your family and living life in order to make yourself happy and feel complete and right. The idea of freedom comes up with little Guy's speech and Guy's outlook on life. The idea of the wall of fire may be significant in that it stands for looming downfall, or having feelings, emotions, or conflicts pile up inside of a person to the point of breaking.

The main character, Guy, has lived a life he did not feel was enough for him or for his family. He wants more for his son but at the same time cannot live with himself for not being about to provide for his family. So much of his life was run by the decisions of others, what work would come and when, that I feel that the title really has a significance when it comes to letting all negatives pile up until it becomes too much. The "rising fire" was maybe a metaphor for the build up of emotion and frustration within his life.

Also, at the end of the short story Guy finally takes a hot air balloon on a journey. This is the other part of the story that relates to the title. In order for a hot air balloon to even get off the ground, a fire must be lit and as the flames rise, the air heats up to raise the balloon off the ground. Guy then takes his last breath and jumps out of the balloon leading to his death. At the same time, this act shows the literal fire rising in the balloon and the metaphorical idea of things becoming too much, building up to the point of destruction.

Krik? Krak! "Children of the Sea" by Edwidge Danticat

This short story really kind of hit home for me when I read it. There is a lot of emotion, and love within it. The idea of loss and trying to hold on to love is very prominent and relevant in this story as well as my life. Also, the butterfly plays a large story-telling role that is almost understated in the actual writing. When my mother's mom was struggling with cancer she told my mom that she wants to become a butterfly once she dies. She told my mom that every time she sees a Monarch butterfly, it will be her.

While reading this story the butterflies really stood out to me. The female character says that butterflies are symbols of death or happy news, depending on their coloration. The black butterflies warn her of death, while the colorful ones bring good news. The female character also used to sketch butterflies before her love left her. I think that it is interesting that once her love left her, she no longer wanted to see the sun to sketch her butterflies, and yet at the end of the story she sees all black butterflies which convince her that her love has died. The reason this aspect is so interesting to me is because my grandmother picked Monarchs as the butterfly she wished to become after death. Monarchs are some of the most brightly colored, most beautiful butterflies around. And they are migrational. Maybe I am stretching my ideas to fit within the story but I couldn't help thinking it while I was reading. Since butterflies are migrational, they are at different places depending on the time of year. So it is strange that in her culture, one butterfly brings good news, and one a warning of death. As if the changing of seasons brings new news. Like rebirth in the spring, and death in the winter. I just think that it is strange that butterflies, something so beautiful, could be twisted to be a reminder of something so terrible, like the loss of a loved one. A boyfriend, a grandmother, a friend.

Arabic Coffee by Naomi Shihab Nye

After our class discussion I decided that it would make sense for me to discuss one of my favorite poems by Nye, "Arabic Coffee". This poem seems to be saying that the coffee brings everyone together. It is the center of the family. It is a way of keeping at least one thing similar and normal in a life that is ever changing. The coffee is a symbol for these people who are gathering. It is a symbol for hope and for faith. Nye writes, "The coffee was the center of the flower. Like clothes on a line saying You will live long enough to wear me, a motion of faith". This personification of the clothes on a line represents how the traditional coffee and meeting place of this family or group of people provides a grasp on reality that says that there will be more days of coffee and more days of this continuing tradition.

I would also like to look at the final line of the poem: "There is this, and there is more." This line I feel is not only the most important line in the poem, but also a pretty good summary of what the poem is about. Looking deeper into what Nye is saying in lines 10 and 19, it seems like the coffee table is a meeting place where all of the people in the family can discuss how they feel and what is going on in their lives without the fear of being judged for what they were saying. The way that this connects to the final line of the poem is that I believe Nye is saying that there is the opportunity to discuss our dreams, as well as the opportunity to achieve them. The coffee meeting is a time to get these ideas and feelings outside, in the open, and then afterwards there is more, there is time and opportunity to change the way things are going and reach for more.

"The Clean Rinse" Analysis

The Clean Rinse by Naomi Shihab Nye


Each time you go through this
you lose a little less color

the water is less
pink, blue, or gray

this is what i try to say:
don't let them wring it out of you

because they like starch,
don't let that apply to your neck

you are real, 100% cotton
you can wrinkle, accept that as gift

and accept these rinses,
they are tedious

they will come
again and again

after awhile, you will have
nothing more they can take

-----------------------------------------

In this poem I feel that Nye is referring to the Americanizing of her religion and her heritage. The way that the country changed after September 11, 2001 created an "unsafe" or fearful environment for many Middle Eastern citizens. Through out the poem Nye discusses going through a process. The process I am   picking up on is being told to be someone she is not in order to fit into society. Nye writes, "each time you go through this you lose a little less color" as if each time she is told to be different or act differently, it becomes easier to ignore or become stronger because of their dislike for difference. At first the taunting and scares make a person want to change immediately, but after so many people saying negativities, it gets easier to disregard or pull through stronger. "Don't let them wring it out of you," Nye writes, this I believe meaning your culture and beliefs. Not any person should be Americanized to the point of losing who they really are. Her talk of wrinkling may mean that it is okay to be human and to be different, it does not make you unimportant or lesser. At the end of the poem Nye talks about having no more to give, or "they" have taken it all away. Meaning that the country may be losing it's cultures, that everyone is becoming similar beyond being "American citizens". People are being forced to conform and turn into what society claims they should be.

My inspiration.

My Real Name
by Elena Noel

"Today my name is colorful.
Yesterday my name was dead souls.
Tomorrow my name will be lively spirits.
My friends think my name is fire.
The police think my name is burden.
My parents think my name is symphony.
Secretly I know my name is anything
I want it to be."


This poem comes from a compilation book called "Paint Me Like I Am" by Nikki Giovanni. All of the poems within the book are written by teen writers who are part of Writerscorps. I purchased this book back in 2007, when my interest in poetry had just begun. I was 15 at the time and completely lost within myself. I had no idea who I was or who I was going to be and I really did not have a clue where I even wanted to be headed. Part of my time was spent living for myself, and like most teenage girls, most of my time was spent trying to live for and please others. When I picked up this book I was absolutely moved by the caliber of writing these teenagers produced. This poem in particular touched me, because it mimicked the emotions and feelings I had at the time I first read it. I thought it was a good choice for my first blog because it still tells a story of how I am feeling, and the young woman who wrote it so simply encompassed a feeling shared by many. It shows how we as women and as people have the option to decide who we want to be, but are also greatly influenced by those around us. I still read this poetry book from time to time and I am as greatly moved now as I was 4 years ago when I first read it.

I also chose the first line of this poem as my blog address because of how it touched me as a writer and as a poetry lover. I figured it would be a great way to encompass the true meaning behind my blog and my opinions.