My Presentation Vote

Although many of the books that were presented as possibilities for next semester’s English 110 class I believe the novel My Sister’s Keeper is the best one for next semester. The main reason that I chose this novel is because it sounds very controversial. It sounds like it would be the type of novel that would invoke strong feelings which would intern spark up conversations in the classroom. Based on the presentation I got the feeling that the strong feelings people might have for some of the characters or situations in this book could be equivalent to the days when our class talked about “John” in My Year of Meats. I don’t say this because I think everyone is going to develop strong negative feelings I just think that the feelings or thoughts that people do form about all the controversies are going to be just as strong as everyone’s hatred for “John.” And we should all remember how much people wanted to express their hatred.

I also picked My Sister’s Keeper because it sounded very interesting. The fact that one child was created with the sole purpose of donating pieces of herself to save her sister instantly pulls and my heartstrings while making me want to learn more. I just wonder what this family is like, how the second sister is treated and how it has shaped her personality. I couldn’t imagine knowing you are only there because your parents wanted to save your sister, not necessarily because they wanted another child. The psychological trauma of that fact alone has to be huge! Basically, the whole idea behind the novel intrigues me. (It didn’t hurt that I think books with twist endings are more fascinating.)

The Many Symbols of My Most Excellent Year

When I was brain storming for my part of the presentation on My Most Excellent Year, I was quite surprised by the number of symbols that could be found in this seemingly simple text. So, I have decided to create this blog entry solely about the symbols that I did find within the text.

*Mary Poppins: She symbolized hope and innocence. When Hucky first started watching Mary Poppins he saw her as his hope for love and family, a hope for someone that would care for him, and his hope for there to be more to life than all the disappointment he had received. She also represented innocence because each character that was touched by Mary Poppins began believing that with enough hard work, even the impossible could become possible. The best example of this is when Ale switches the person she addresses her diary entries to from Jacqueline Kennedy to Mary Poppins. This switch happens after she meets Hucky and when she switches to her former cynical, rigid self to believing in her own dreams and her ability to make a difference (which is something she once thought impossible.) This demonstrates innocence because as innocence is lost people tend to doubt their ability to make the impossible a possibility.

* Baseball: (I haven’t quite figured out what this symbolizes yet but it is so well incorporated into the novel that it has to symbolize something. Perhaps it is dedication, but I’m not sure)

*Deafness: In the novel this represents social unawareness. I say this because in the beginning of the novel Ale, Augie and T.C. were the center of their own little worlds. And when each of the characters first met Hucky, none of them were able to communicate with him, because they did not know sign language and he was deaf. But as the novel progressed each character began caring more about the lives of others and the language barrier between Hucky and everyone else began to break down. Until T.C., Augie and Ale had a big enough sing language vocabulary that the reader almost forgets Hucky is even deaf.



WARNING: spoiler written below

*Orphan: This is the last symbol that I noticed and it represents feeling lost. At the beginning of the novel each significant character, including many of the supporting ones, were feeling a bit lost. And in the case of the four main characters (Ale, Augie, T.C. and Hucky), each one was sort of searching for their place in life. But as the novel progressed each character began discovering their talents and following their dreams and Hucky began feeling like he had a family. By the end of the novel each character discovered their place in the world, becoming more sure of themselves and Hucky was adopted by Pop (T.C.’s dad.)

Cultural Criticism of Society's View of Deafness

One thing that I found really interesting about the book My Most Excellent Year is that, unlike many novels or movies I have heard of, is that Hucky (a Deaf orphan that one of the main characters, T.C., befriends) is not displayed as a character that should be pitied because of this deafness. Sure, the reader wants to pity the young child, but this is mainly because he is an Orphan who was abandoned by his mother. As Hucky breaks out of his shell and becomes comfortable with the other characters in the book, he is displayed as a smart, independent child who has a perfectly normal vocabulary range. This is contradictory to the stereotype that many Deaf community members are forced to deal with; the sad stereotype is that Deaf individuals are dumb, isolated human beings with a limited vocabulary because they were not able to receive a proper schooling because of their “disability.” (The Deaf community does not see deafness as a disability. The only see it as a part of them.)

Steve Kluger, the author of the novel, even went as far as to include a criticism of the way ignorant people from the hearing community, who may have never met a Deaf person, react to a child with Deafness. This criticism was briefly introduced when Hucky and T.C. traveled to New York to find Julie Andrews, Mary Poppins to Hucky. In one instance when a woman found out Hucky was deaf, she began shouting at him as if that would help (Hucky was completely deaf, not just hard of hearing.) Another example is when the New York cab driver saw T.C. signing to Hucky with the reflection off of his rear view mirror, he quickly offered the two a free tour of the city simply because he pitied Hucky. While this worked out quite well for the boys, such acts can result in negative consequences in other instances.

He's a Man; He's a Mouse: He's....One Confused Character

One thing that I noticed about Art Spiegelman’s comic pages about 9-11 and post 9-11 America was that he constantly changed the way his character was represented. I mean, in one section of the graphic novel he was a scruffy, scraggly looking guy and then the next thing you know he is a mouse! Although after looking at the historic strips I understand where he got the inspiration for his third character representation in “Marital Blitz” since the main character is fairly similar o the main character in “Bringing Up Father” (Plate VII.) At that point he appears to have chosen to represent himself in that particular way because it fit the mood and allowed him to over dramatize a little (much in the same way movies occasionally flip to black and white reels mocking the overly perfect Cleaver type family.) I still don’t quite understand the symbolism behind occasionally representing himself as a mouse though. I think it has something to do with fear (the kind driven by hysteria) but I can’t quite figure it out past that. Perhaps it has something to do with his graphic novel Mouse that I have heard some talk about in class. All I know is that his strip entitled “Weapons of Mass Displacement” is probably the biggest clue behind his reasonings since he starts out with his usual human character but as emotions become more heated the comic strip becomes more chaotic until the last box depicts the main character as a mouse (or a human with a mouse head to be more exact.) Now if I could just figure out the clue I would be set.

If anyone has a clue why, please fill me in!

Ikea Fever

In the beginning of the movie Fight Club, nothing truly matted to Edward except obtaining the next great Ikea item. He became a product of their products so to speak. Edward didn’t appear to have any family or friends (with the exception of the “small serving” friends he made on his frequent trips) and he did not seem to have any aspirations to build such relationships. Like many people, Edward had become more attached to his inanimate possessions than the people he interacted with. In fact, he measured his life by his possessions. Edward believed that if he had a complete set of Ikea products that would, in turn, make him complete somehow. It seemed as if Edward was looking for some purpose and meaning in his isolated and dull life but instead of forming a connection or trying something new, he turned to shopping. Instead of creating something new (through a hobby or by forming a relationship) Edward takes what others have made (which in my opinion fits his selfish, passive-aggressive personality.) This act of measuring oneself by what we own, not who we are is a personality trait that is a symptom of American consumer culture. It is a cold fact that many Americans (if not people of other cultures as well) judge others on how they look; which includes the kind of clothes and jewelry that person possess (their material things). Many Americans also place great weight on these first impressions. This is a well known fact in American culture and therefore we, as Americans and consumers, become driven to obtain items that will hopefully produce good impressions. This in turn pushes us, the consumers, to continually go out and buy the latest and greatest things, which is exactly what Edward did. Through this whole process of buying to impress it becomes easy to forget that these objects do not define us, they merely have the potential to express an aspect of our personality. Perhaps this is one reason why America is considered a nation of consumers rather than producers, because we have become more obsessed with the possessions we feel must be obtained than we do with the things we feel we should create. And in turn, we have become a symptom of consumer culture, just like Edward, rather than its creators.

The Best American Nonrequired Reading

I recently finished the first section of The Best American Nonrequired Reading and I wasn’t very impressed with it. Some of the lists were funny I will admit (especially the list of worst racehorse names) but I would have preferred to read a story or two instead. With lists, I didn’t feel like there was enough length to enjoy. I love getting wrapped up in stories and connecting with characters. When it came to reading lists I felt like it was disconnected and I did not feel that it had a good flow. I will admit that the reading did go by quite fast. And I can see how it would be easier to get a high school student to read something they can just pick up whenever they have five spare minutes, but at the same time, I think that when I was a high school student I would have enjoyed a short story a little more. Maybe if there weren’t eleven lists but instead just a couple short ones, I would have enjoyed it more. Or perhaps some of the humor incorporated in the lists was just wasted on me (I found it funny but not funny enough to make up for reading so many lists in a row.) Whatever the reason, I would have to say that out of everything we have read in this class, I enjoyed this section the least.

I must admit though, this section does bring more meaning to the grocery store anecdote.

On the bright side:


Things Worse than Reading 29 Pages Worth of Lists

Having your teeth drilled by the dentist before you’re fully numb,
Falling off a cliff with sharp, pointy rocks awaiting you below,
Discovering that nightmare involving underwear, school, and 1,000 peers was not a dream,
The computer crashing two seconds after you typed the last word of your 20 page essay,
Drinking a little too much and retching on your crush’s new Nikes,
Remembering said alcoholic accident the next morning (or should I say afternoon),
The day after a night shift at the CUB (complete with 9 am classes),
Receiving a pop quiz after said night shift at the CUB,
Watching cougar football (yet another touchdown for the opposing team),
And last but not least,
Reading THIRTY pages worth of lists

Nursing Home Blues

While reading this novel, Water for Elephants, I found the similarities between old Jacob at the beginning of the novel and my grandma when she was in the nursing home. In fact, seeing the nursing home through Jacob’s eyes provided a new perspective on what my grandma had experienced. Both Jacob and my grandmother are strong willed people and they are accustomed to taking care of themselves. When moving into a nursing home it seems that both people have trouble adjusting from leading a life of independence to a life of almost complete dependence. This fact alone bothered my grandma quite a bit and resulted in a lack of patience when she had to wait on the nurses to help her. She also became irritated with the way the nurses treated her. It wasn’t as if the nurses treated her badly or without respect, instead the thing that really bothered her was that the nurses did not treat her like an adult equal to them. With the exception of Rosemary, Jacob seems to have this exact same problem. In the nursing home he is treated as if he is no longer able to make any good decisions and in some instances he is treated more like a child than a 90 year old adult.

Another similarity is their experiences with the food. On several occasions my grandmother flat out refused to force down a few bites of the stuff because it was so terrible. The nursing home even put some powder in her water to thicken it up and make sure she wouldn’t choke which only resulted in her refusal to drink it of course. So, having seen the food that nursing homes serve and hearing my own grandmother’s complaints, I completely understand Jacob’s rant about the pock marked jello and the tasteless food. In fact, I don’t blame him for wanting to toss that garbage on the floor, even if he didn’t mean to.

On the other hand, seeing what nurses have to deal with in a nursing home I also understand their perspective. This fact makes me like Rosemary even more because she doesn’t see Jacob as just another patient, she sees him as an intelligent person. I think it really shows her character if she can work at a place as depressing as a nursing home and still maintain her encouraging, personable and up-beat spirit.