Barbie Doll and Literary Analysis

        Barbie Dolls are the toys of the little girl.  White beauty and skinniness.  What everyone wants to be.  Smiling and content, with a nice-looking boyfriend.  Muscular, strong.  Flawless.  Ken.  But this is not the real world.  It is pretend.

        In Barbie Doll by Marge Piercy, readers learn that societal pressure can cause people to alter their true identity, in favor of one that is more accepted.  We see this theme in the poem initially in the title, Barbie Doll, which exemplifies the norms of beauty for women -- this is generally being white and skinny.  We see a girl who played with dolls as a young girl, seeing their utopian qualities of beauty.  She hits the "magic of puberty," stated in a metaphor in the poem, and her body is changed, much like magic does.  She becomes more developed, and is called out for having "a great big nose and fat legs."  A girl who is intelligent and healthy, with good skills, is forced to apologize for herself.  For not fitting conventional beauty.  Just like with Rachel in the Girl Who Fell from the Sky, the girl's beauty is a single story: her body, and is objectified.  Advised by society to flirt -- play coy and wheedle -- and get skinny, the girl eventually has to take off her mask.  Her blue bottle of criticisms breaks.  She cuts her fatness, who she is to conform to societal norms.  The girl changes who she is.  But, as the poem ironically says, now, the girl is pretty.

Final Discussion: Microlabs

        Round 1: If I could use one word to describe what Rachel's survival looked like it would be independence.  This is because without her immediate family, Rachel is largely on her own throughout the book.  She has no one to empathize with in her struggles of mixed race, an lives a life with a parental void, for the most part, aside from what Drew did.  She realizes this independence, and embraces it as a part of herself.  I think this independence causes her to form a unique identity, which benefits her.

        Round 2: As Durrow said in her interview with Norris, she thought it would be interesting to write a book about the survival of a girl after the tragedy she experienced.  So I concur with this point, that the main topic of the book is not the incident on the roof.  However, I do believe that the characters involved are centered around the incident, and that the plot revolves around the incident, starting with it at the beginning, coming to it intermittently throughout, and ending with it.  Yet the gist of the story is about Rachel -- the girl who fell from the sky and survived -- and her coping with the struggles of being the only survivor in her mixed race family, as well as the other people's lives after the incident.  You cannot write a story exclusively about one event.

       Round 3: Nella is certainly one of the most polarizing characters in the book.  What she did, in giving up and jumping off the roof with her children, is selfish to me.  Her children deserved better.  Yet, at the same time, Rachel appears to understand why her mother did such a thing.  Their lives were a struggle -- coping with abuse, alcoholism, and the constant lack of a fatherly figure in the household, illustrated by Nella's agonized diary entries.  I have some empathy for Nella, because of this.  Rachel understood why Mor couldn't take it anymore, she realized that Mor did it to alleviate the pain of her children.  For me, this was not the way for Nella to love her children, to diminish their pain.  I cannot understand why she did it.  But I think, in her confusion, the only certain way to diminish the pain and stay with her family was to die with them.

        Round 4: Silence plays a prominent role in both the Girl Who Fell from the Sky and the Grace of Silence.  It shapes the identities of the characters by them growing up in oblivion, to their benefit and detriment.  They were not hindered by struggles of their family, but they were also not strengthened by being able to move on from the secrets that were kept.  The telling of stories about families makes individuals into more complete people.  The unknown is dangerous, and secrets separate people.  They perpetuate the single story.  Rachel not addressing the tragedy caused her to be burdened, until she finally did.  Racism, too is perpetuated by silence.  We cannot get over, nor address the problem in hushed whispers.  One example of this in when Aunt Loretta and her friend kept information from Rachel about her race.

        Round 5: This extended metaphor throughout the book of falling versus flying is profound.  The theme, I think, is does one plunge into despair, or is one resilient, and are they able to fly away from it?  Rachel jumps from the roof, as opposed to falling from it.  This shows me that she willingly acted to let go of the struggles of her past in an act of family solidarity.  Yet she survives, and the incident on the roof stays with her until she has the audacity to talk about it.  When she does, she begins to fly, as a swan.  She stops running, and takes to the air, away, away.  Brick listens, and she releases.

        Bonus Round: While the Girl Who Fell from the Sky was a fiction text, it provided very realistic insight into how people would react to and address a tragedy, and how a half Danish, half black girl would cope with the racism she faced.  These stories, reading the word, gives us multiple ideas, rather than a single story, to make the world better known.  In these ways Heidi Durrow helps me read the world.

Compare and Contrast Essay Work Day 1

Potential Topics ~

• Coping with racism -- How do Norris and Rachel deal with racism?  How does this impact their identity?
• Past affecting identity -- How do the pasts of the two protagonists affect their present identity?  Do they try to let it go, or do they embrace it?
• Parental influences -- How do parents or guardians shape the identities of Rachel and Norris?  Do they play an important role in shaping the identities of both characters?
• Beauty's influence -- How does the desire to look beautiful -- based on what the characters believe the definition of beauty is -- shape their identity?  What do they do to realize this?
• Silence -- How does the concept of keeping some things quiet -- and opening up about other issues -- affect the identities of the two main characters?

I am going to investigate the topic of silence in The Grace of Silence and The Girl Who Fell from the Sky.

        Silence, specifically the way we utilize it, is a quietly significant part of our identities.  The way we deal with conflict involves the question of either being silent and stoic, and moving on, or speaking back and fighting.  Also, in general, what we choose to say and what we don't choose to say has significant impact on our identities.  This is evident in both texts we read this year, The Grace of Silence and The Girl Who Fell from the Sky.  In the former, a large part of the book is about discovering truths, somewhat traumatic truths about Michele Norris' parents' pasts, that were kept secret from her.  Her parents were silent about her father getting shot in the leg as a young returning war vet in Birmingham, Alabama, and the job of her mother which subtly perpetuated racism -- an itinerant Aunt Jemima.  Michele Norris realizes that this silence had notable impact on her identity -- seeing that her parents had not told her so because they didn't want to weigh her ambitions down in regards to her race.  But at the same time, Norris is determined to push the silence back, and speak truths to the people, and listen to their truths.  This too, frames her identity.  In the latter book, Rachel experiences a tragic incident as a child in which almost everyone in her immediate family dies.  It changes her life forever -- and she decides not to talk about it.  This, I think, keeps the calamity with her and hinders her from moving on, yet at the same time helps her remember her family.  It affects her identity.  Another appearance of the concept of silence that we see throughout the novel is in Rachel utilizing the "blue bottle" to cope with racism, in which she puts all negative statements about herself and her race.  She does not address them, and this is corrosive to her identity until she finally does.  Certainly, this is one way she differs from Norris -- Rachel is much more willing to defer the problem to her "blue bottle" and to embrace silence, than to directly address the issue like Norris.  The same goes for facing the reality of their pasts.  Yet both are very open about their race and ethnicity.

Potential Thesis Statement ~

        The ways in which Michele and Rachel choose to address the issue of silence has profound impact on their identity.  They are both proud of their race and ethnicity and are not afraid to tell people; however, they differ in their ways of coping with racism, and that Rachel embraces silence about her past and Michele opens up to the world about it.

Key moments from both books that warrant discussion in the essay ~

• The roof incident that altered the circumstances in Rachel's life forever (GFFS)
• Michele's mother's stint as a traveling Aunt Jemima and her reaction that shapes her identity (GS)
• Finding out about the shooting of Michele's father and how Norris reacts to stereotypical, "traditional" perspectives from some interviewees (GS)
• Reflection on how not telling about these secrets affected Norris' identity (GS)
• "Blue bottle" and incidents with Tamika Washington in which Rachel initially embraces silence (GFFS)
• The fight with Tamika and talking back (GFFS)
• Talking to Brick about the incident -- coping with it effectively, moving on, and changing her identity into that of a mature person (GFFS)
• Reflections about silence in regards to the incident on the roof (GFFS)

What Are You?

        Generally, when I am asked the question "What are you?" it is in an almost sarcastic context, when someone is pretending that they are irritated with me.  Then, it is really a rhetorical question, of little significance.  But when I really ponder it, what comprises my identity, it is very significant.  My identity is made up of almost everything about me.  The question "Who are you?" fails to consider the identity aspect, I think.  But "What are You?" is more multi-dimensional, with the opportunity to tell the complete story of you, rather than the superficiality of a name.  It can be about a race, but it can also be about other aspects that you value more, like your likes and dislikes, your personality, or even the activities in which you participate.  So yes, I am white.  But so are most people I know.  I want to be different.  I come from diverse religious backgrounds; my mom's Catholic and my dad's Jewish.  I am a reader, a learner, and an athlete.  I value hard work and tolerance.

        More and more, as the New York Times article illustrates, mixed-race children are coming to be.  One of seven new marriages is between spouses of different races or ethnicities, according to data from 2008 to 2009 that was analyzed by the Pew Research Center.  These people, a growing population in America, have a more diverse and complex identity, something they don't want to be so definitive as a check in a single box on the census, but a fluid, complete story on the merging of multiple cultures.  I completely agree with Laura Wood from the article, believing that in a sense of race, society is trying to tear everyone apart and pick a side.  It has to be black or white.  It can't be gray.  And it really should be, if the individual wants this.  Every person should be able to determine their own identity.  Mixed race people are often oppressed by the choosing of their identity for them, and they should be able to do it themselves.  Rachel, in the Girl Who Fell From the Sky, is finding it difficult to embrace both parts of her identity, with people forcing her into one category: black.  She has no one, really, to empathize with in her struggle.  Wood said of her mixed identity, "If someone tries to call me black I say, 'yes- and white'" (Saulny, 2011).  I think Rachel will agree with this in the future, and will appreciate both her Danish and black identity.  She can be of different parts, although her grandmother might argue otherwise.  These diverse parts form a more complete whole.

        Heidi Durrow is part Danish and part black, like Rachel.  And just like Laura Wood, she believes black does not complete the question "What are You?" for her.  For this reason, she would definitely appreciate the work of the MBSA and the safe space and solidarity it gives the students to talk about their identity struggles.  She talks about incorporating all of her identity in the conversation, not just select parts (Durrow, 2013).  Durrow's answer to "What are You?" is that she is many stories.  This is related to the quote from the article because it refers to the single story of race versus the actual complexity of an individual's identity, many stories.  Stories are long, with twists and turns that race alone cannot tell.  This should be the nature of everyone's identity, and they should be able to determine it.