"What a treacherous thing to believe, that a person is more than a person." -John Green

Manning sees his dad as a person so above him -- the "protector" of the family, always one step ahead so that he can always catch his son in case he falls. It's hard for Manning to escape that mindset until he's face to face with him, arm wrestling, and he realizes that he is going to beat him. All of a sudden, he understands that his father isn't all-powerful, but human. It is when Manning finally sees his father as an equal that he is able to fully grasp their love -- this arm wrestling which he once viewed as a competition is, in reality, a way of communication.

Even though I can't relate with Manning's physical relationship with his father, I think I really connected with the distance in their relationship that Manning felt as a child. At the beginning of the story, he respects his father, but is unsure of his father's feelings and yearns for a sort of acceptance or approval. However, at the end, their relationship becomes more tender, and he connects with his father on an emotional level. In this way, Manning asserts that the most emotionally rewarding type of love exists between those who consider each other equals. When you place someone on a pedestal, you are prone to turning a blind eye to any imperfections and imagining him as something he isn't (à la Gatsby and Daisy). At worst, this can lead to your getting hurt by an unhealthy relationship. At best, it creates a barrier that prevents you from being truly close with the person.

"Love isn't about seeing someone as perfect; it's seeing that they aren't perfect and accepting them and loving them anyway."

-my friend Shachi

Chinese-American

Amy Tan's "Fish Cheeks" discusses the weird place that many Chinese-Americans (or anyone who is stuck between two cultures, really) inevitably find themselves in -- the place where they have to either publicly display or deny their affiliation with "customs" like burping at the table and eating obscure body parts of animals. The weirdest thing about this place is that I've been there with my parents.
When I was younger, I viewed my parents as one-dimensional, wholly Chinese, and unaware of the "American ways". I always thought that I was more aware of the cultural differences, and more knowledgeable of the ways I should and shouldn't act. But, more and more, I realize that we're in the same boat, me and my parents -- actually, they are probably in a smaller, more dangerous boat passing through a sea of alligators, as they have obviously faced many more challenges and overcome more alienation than I since they immigrated here in the 80's. And though they have, of course, retained many of the values and habits of Chinese culture (we are a very stereotypically Asian family), their lives are in America. In fact, as of a couple years ago, they have officially lived in America for a majority of their lives. And, in fact, when my mom told me this piece of information, she jokingly asked me whether she was becoming a typical American. Although it doesn't seem like it, my parents are hyper-aware of the way American culture affects their lifestyles as well as their identities. In short, they're Chinese-Americans, too.
I don't think it's a matter of, as Tan puts it, being Chinese on "the inside" and American on the "outside"...I don't even really know what that means. My parents and I are all Chinese on the inside and out, as well as Americans through and through. My parents take care to preserve our culture and make sure my sister and I understand where we come from, but they truly take more care to love us and allow us do what makes our lives fulfilling, outside of any cultural context.
Happy Chinese New Year, by the way.

New Semester

In “Champion of the World”, Maya Angelou recalls her community gathering in her grandfather’s Store to listen to Joe Louis’s championship boxing match. She describes Louis as a symbol of black empowerment and details the tense feeling of anticipation in the room as they waited for him to prove that they were “the strongest people in the world.” Despite all the celebration after the Brown Bomber’s victory, Angelou still notices that it is still unsafe for them to travel late at night, and that whites still hold power in determining where blacks go and when. At the end of the story, African Americans are still distant from attaining equality.

Coming away from this story, I was a little bit confused about what Angelou wanted us to take away as her opinion on the whole event. In one aspect, she applauded Louis for being this otherworldly symbol of power for her race, but at the same time, she ended the passage on a borderline pessimistic note. It’s hard to say whether she aimed to give readers hope or dash their hope to pieces by asserting that victories like Louis’s do nothing to further Civil Rights. However, the fact that Angelou’s take on the memory is so multi-dimensional is what makes her autobiography so realistic to me, even if I’ve never been a black girl growing up in the South. After all, no impactful experience in my life has ever been exclusively positive or negative, so there’s no reason for me to expect Angelou’s experiences to be.

Thoughts on A Raisin in the Sun: Selfishness

There is no doubt that Walter acts selfishly in the novel -- he takes Mama's money and spends it on his own dream, and he ignores his family's advice/directions, even though what he does directly affects them. He loses the money that has the potential to take them out of poverty and fulfill part of their collective dream; that is the lowest point of the play, and in that moment it seems that all hope is lost.

So why was Walter such an appealing character to me? As I read the book, I found myself siding with him, becoming angry with Beneatha for treating him so coldly, and excusing his drinking and irresponsibility.

It all goes back to the first scene, in which Walter passionately defends his dream, his desire to take control of his situation and provide for his family. I forgave him because his selfish actions stem from unselfish desires. I identified with his passion, his longing for a single goal, and accordingly overlooked his foolish and selfish actions.

One major point in Walter's personality is that he's often willing to risk too much or give too much of himself to attain society's definition of success. In the end, though, I can't condemn him for wanting this kind of success, for I am often guilty of making these same types of sacrifices.

What exactly defines selfishness? 
Can an action ever be wholly selfish or unselfish? 
And to what extent is selfishness acceptable? 

Field Trip to the DIA

I wish I had taken a picture of the nameplate. :(
I attempted to find the name of the painting afterwards
(through Google, very strenuous work), but to no avail.
Update: The painting is "Savoy Ballroom" by Reginald Marsh

On Friday, I went on the Spanish field trip to the DIA.

 “Ha!”, I thought, “I’ll miss English! Yippee!”

However, as I walked through the museum, I came upon a painting of African-Americans dancing in a jazz club during the 1920’s. I examined the faces of the men and women dancing in the picture. Gaiety exuded from every aspect of the picture, from the facial expressions and body language to the vividly colored finery worn by the black men and women. I began to feel a nagging suspicion that I wasn’t going to engage in the thought-free day I had expected.

I was attacked by a rush of thoughts about the poems we read in class -- Langston Hughes’s “Harlem” and “The Weary Blues” depict a much different view of life for African Americans, a life that “festers like a sore”. He documents the hardships that blacks faced and the heavy burden that society places on them because of their race. In contrast to the painter who portrayed the blacks’ lives as enjoyable, carefree, and even glamorous, Hughes portrayed the life of a black as melancholy and tiresome.

However, In the piece by Zora Neale Hurston that we read this weekend, the author seemed to reflect on her heritage in a more positive light, embracing her blackness and seeming to expect others to embrace it as well.

“[The orchestra] constricts the thorax and splits the heart with its tempo and narcotic harmonies...I dance wildly inside myself; I yell within, I whoop; I shake my assegai above my head, I hurl it true to the mark yeeeeooww! I am in the jungle and living in the jungle way.”
I can almost imagine Hurston dancing alongside the people in this painting.

Also, I was just kidding about missing English and the yippee.

Finishing The Great Gatsby

I loved the book, because I felt a stronger connection to the characters (despite their moral insufficiencies) than I did to some other characters we have studied in English thus far (in The Crucible and The Scarlet Letter). I think a lot of the problems we face today arise due to modernization; there is a constant battle between our desires to do good in the world and wasting time on the internet, going shopping, getting things that we want but don’t necessarily need… they all arise from our tendencies toward self-indulgence and materialism, what the characters face in The Great Gatsby. The contrast between the rich and the poor portrayed in the novel are readily applicable to class issues of recent times, from the Occupy movement to the portrayal of Romney as disgustingly and inaccessibly rich. The overwhelming wealth of the characters gives them freedoms impossible in the time of the Puritans, freedoms that the characters readily abuse. The Roaring Twenties was a time of extreme moral decay, the same exact moral decay that the Puritans were diametrically opposed to. The actions of Gatsby and Daisy and Tom make the Puritans’ extreme intolerance of pleasure and sin almost seem justified.

Key word: almost. We all know how well their City on the Hill worked out for them… In today’s context, the cruel punishments that the Puritans inflicted on those who broke their strict moral code seem just as wrong as the debauchery, betrayal, and complete lack of integrity in Gatsby’s characters. Furthermore, it is important to note how easily both societies are corrupted – the Puritan society through the Salem Witch Trials and Twenties through…well, everything. Each is so unstable that a single action (Abigail’s manipulation and Daisy’s words “You always look so cool”) can cause everything to tumble into murder and chaos…mass hysteria, if you will.

I feel that studying literature set in both of these extreme conditions sets a frame for the “best” sort of world we want to create today. We strive to find the happy medium in our lives, one that allows us pleasure – perhaps through love, a career, or hobbies – without compromising our morals, the things that allow us to feel empathy and tie us to rest of the human race.

“The Buddha’s message was simple yet profound. Neither a life of self- indulgence, nor one of self-mortification can bring happiness. Only a middle path, avoiding these two extremes, leads to peace of mind, wisdom, and complete liberation from the dissatisfactions of life.” 

~Bhante Gunaratana, a Sri Lankan Buddhist monk

Starting The Great Gatsby

The Great Gatsby Essential Question: How do class, gender, religion, race, and culture determine our relationships?

 Examining this question on the level of the infamous high school hierarchy, my first thought is that people associate with those on the same level as them. It’s the widely-held belief that “populars” don’t deign to speak to the nerds and outcasts. But it’s also those on the fringes who often feel “above” befriending the populars. I feel like a majority of people identify themselves as nonconformists and use this as a basis to separate themselves from that group. For a few of these people, it becomes easy to denounce those in the group as superficial, catty, or vapid. Because we like to feel that our own individual group is unique, we tend to generalize and stereotype others.  

In the book How to Be Black, Baratunde Thurston uses comedy to expose the intricacies of understanding race. He points out that although it is generally accepted that racism is bad, it is hard to differentiate between what is racist and what is not. Obviously, most people don't go out of their way to be racist, so at least in most environments that I've been exposed to, race has never been a problem in developing relationships. I do think that people of the same backgrounds are commonly friends, but I think this is partially due to the fact that their cultures automatically give them something in common to bond over, not that they are intolerant of people of other backgrounds.

“Like vampires and extremely rich people, black folk can sense one another. Use your Spidey Sense (Blacky Sense?). Use your blackdar to inspect the workplace for signs of Other Negroes. They may be working security for the building. They may be in administrative support. They may be among the associate pool, or they may even be in upper management. Black folk can be anywhere. After all, you're here. But one of the biggest mistakes you can make as The Black Employee is to assume you are the only one.”

-Baratunde Thurston, How to Be Black