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.