Week Five: Blog Response

Jhumpa Lahiri, 48, is an Bengali author who was born in the UK and has won the Pulitzer prize for her first novel, Namesake, in 2000. She is also the author of this short story, Pulao. Pulao is a traditional rice of the Bengali culture. Lahiri uses this dish to give her readers an experience in her culture. Bangladesh is a very small country and being next to India, it is overlooked frequently. Interestingly, a lot of Bengalis are taken for Indians which shows they are heavily overlooked. Lahiri's true intention was to use something from her culture to distinguish herself from other cultures, such as Indian, and to make her culture as dynamic and unique as possible. I believe her method of displaying this message was effective because she opened her readers to a new culture that is not represented. Lahiri includes many terms from her culture. This includes andaj, meaning estimate, and annaprasan, meaning right of passage. She successful emerges us into her culture. Lahiri also tries to display her father as the prototype Bengali man. He plays an important role in this story because he is person actually making the rice for his daughter. She details that he was a very methodical man who did everything a specific way. He was so particular in making the Pulao, she was able to describe his method from years of watching him. The rice he made represents him as a man. He made the rice with such precision and this is also how he approached life; everything done with precision. This short story was also very effective in symbolizing. An important symbol is the microwave towards the end. Her father was unable to use the oven; so instead, he unconventionally used a microwave to complete his dish. The microwave, in my opinion, symbolizes that her father was a modest man. Usually, one who is meticulous about everything they do gets frustrated when they do not get their expected outcome. However, Lahiri’s father showed that he is capable of completing this traditional dish is any way possible. Lahiri succeeded at displaying her father as a great man even when he is put in a tough situation. One thing I found to be odd is how short this story is. I assumed that Lahiri would give her readers more examples of her culture to further separate Bengali traditions from other similar traditions. Including maybe a few more examples or anecdotes about her culture would have rid the ignorance of those who confuse Bengali with other cultures due to the fact it is often overlooked. I did enjoy this story because I have personal experience with the Bengali culture and Lahiri helped me get a better understanding of the culture. This was my favorite reading because any reader can relate. Rice is a common dish in many cultures and every culture has different methods of making the rice. Lahiri is also trying to connect all of these cultures by displaying a commonality between almost every culture. Again, I enjoyed this piece.

Week Four: Blog Response

As I started to listen to this song, I realized that my favorite artist, Kanye West, sampled this song on his song "Blood on the Leaves". Although the songs sound completely different, I believe they convey the same message. The strange fruit that hangs on the tree is the bodies of black people being hanged. As they are hung from a noose, their blood begins to drip onto the leaves. This is just another example of how blacks (and other minorities) are mistreated. This song directly correlates with Walker's story due to the fact that Myop came across a dead man, who was hung from a tree. This is the strange fruit that has ripen and fallen off of the Southern tree and is now left to rot on the ground. This song is very powerful and can be applied to modern society. In recent news, many police officers have wrongfully murdered many black people. What is troubling to understand is that they are not punished for these actions. As a result, there has been an uprising of the "#BlackLivesMatter" movement in which people have begun and continue to protest for equality. Progress has been made but in reality, I don't believe things will change unless we change. The 5% with power will continue to corrupt the judicial system and will continue to "give the blind eye" to the heinous hate crimes committed daily by the bigots of this country. For change to occur, we have to be the change; we have to put ourselves into the judicial system to weed out the corrupt people who operate it now. We can not keep limiting ourselves to being average. We can not keep being the fruit that falls off of the tree and at this point, I believe we are hanging ourselves and not giving ourselves a chance to grow. This is the only way to achieve equality within the world. I went off on a huge tangent but I hope my message was somewhat related to your question. 

Week Four: Interpretation Response

Atwood's stories were a lot more contemporary and modern compared to the other stories. In the piece "Happy Endings", she uses a lot of language that is more common in today's society. At times, I felt I was watching reality tv. Her style is less traditional; she does not have a specific order of the story. Although her style is less traditional, she was still able to convey her message to the readers. I believe she does this to help her readers relate. In modern times, most young adults and even older adults look for something different when it comes to a reading. Atwood was able to use this to her advantage and create stories in which the reader could directly relate to. I believe all three authors infused some aspects of modern society in their work. For example, Le Guin's story included biblical figures. Most would assume immediately this story would refer to the bible. However, Le Guin used a colloquial style to also help people relate. Atwood, however, accomplished more with her modern style of writing.

Week Three: Blog Response

I genuinely enjoyed the readings this week. These samples by women were very relatable and all of the issues they mentioned are still occurring in today's society. My favorite was "There Once Was" by Margret Atwood. Her message was very straightforward and clear. I was able to relate because I am typically stereotyped myself because I am African-American and the stereotypes/prejudices used against me have existed for decades. They make me wonder if society has changed throughout time but then I realized that it is the people who have not progressed along with society. These are the same people against gender equality, same-sex marriage, etc. I am not surprised that this message was communicated by a woman because women are usually accepting of all. As discussed in "She Unnames Them" by Ursula Le Guin, Eve strived to connect with nature rather than separating herself. She aimed for equality throughout the entire animal kingdom rather than just throughout the human race. The sad truth however is that as humans, we are unable to establish equality with our own people which makes the goal of Eve seem idealistic and impossible. Although that it may be idealistic, I believe seeking equality is essential because it assures that everyone is given a fair chance. I would say these samples by women accomplish their mission of opening the many narrow minds in today's society. Women's literature deserves more exposure because they give people a different perspective of viewing the problems of this world. Thank you for giving us this opportunity!

Week Three: Interpretation Response

In my opinion, I believe Calvino's way using magic realism is a more successful example. He incorporated more magic in his story, so much that it could be considered fantasy. However, he used a lot of factual research done by many scientists to create more of a balance between the realism and the magic. Another reason why this approach is successful is because it succeeding at grabbing the attention of the reader due to the influx of magic. The plethora of adjectives used in this Calvino's story played a key role in distinguishing this story as a true example of magic realism. Compared to Borges, who's work only displayed a few traits of magic realism, Calvino's work displayed a majority of those same traits, making it a successful example of magic realism.

Week Two: Magic Realism

Magic Realism is a style used in contemporary literature for authors to display their messages to the readers in a unique way and for readers to interpret the author's story in a unique fashion. It was a term that was originally used in painting. The German artist Otto Dix first coined it in the 20^th century. This term referred to a style of painting, now called New Objectivism, in which the paintings were made to show the devastating horrors of World War I. Magic Realism was also used by another artist Giorgio de Chirico. He used it as a new way of looking at the world that will help discover the many mysteries of this world. Now, Magic Realism is now commonly used in literature as a style in which authors are able to use magic and fantasy and infuse with the real, authentic characteristic of life. The elements include the use of many adjectives to describe real objects, real elements such as setting and where these mystical events take place, metaphors that are taken literally, as well as catalogs, or a long list of real objects to give the readers an essence of realism. One thing that is unique about magic realism is that in the stories, everything that occurs is accepted with no question. This is what separates magic realism from fantasy. The characters in the story know what is occurring, however, they perceive it to be reality and in fact, it is their reality. Another characteristic of magic realism is that the events that occur cannot be explained psychologically meaning that things do not occur because of something in their brain or something that affects their mental capacity. Magic realism is also used politically to explain current events in this world. This is possible because realism is used to describe the event and magic or fantasy is used to subvert the event. This is what makes magic realism so powerful in today's society. Although I do not have much experience with it, I see the potential. This style can be used throughout many arts: literature, paintings, movies, TV shows, etc. The possibilities are endless when it comes to using this style. I hope in the future, it is less ridiculed and used more to actually discover the many mysteries in this world.

Week Two: Interpretation Response

I believe in the contemporary world, both of these stories are useful and both are relatable for me personally. If I were to choose one however, I would say Tolstoy's story is more "useful" mainly because greed in something we encounter daily. Many people in this country have some dream or goal they aim to achieve but their motivation is to acquire money. This is dangerous due to the fact that money is paper and once one perishes, they cannot use that worthless paper anymore. People work so hard for money and it only displays the greed in them. I believe this is Tolstoy's message to his readers. Instead of working towards acquiring money, strive for happiness because that will spread throughout the people you interact with daily. Money is only used temporarily and once it is spent, it is gone forever but happiness will never leave the heart.