Mni Sota Makoce

1.       When Wasicuna's father says, "It is hard to be an Indian," he is referring to the roots of the American Indian people being stripped from them and the struggle of living life without an identity.  Wasicuna alludes to the fact that the struggle of American Indians today has its roots in past colonists' oppression and forced assimilation into white society, and has been perpetuated by oblivion.  Dakota history, until recently, has not been a part of American history.  People are instead taught falsehoods solely from the perspective of colonists, that do not reflect truth or Dakota ideals.  To have people learn lies about you takes away a truth from your identity.  But overall, the Dakota people have a sense of respect for everything.  For the land, the water, and the people.  All people.  Largely, in the past, white people treated the Dakota with abhorrent disrespect, taking their home: the land.  But the Dakota people did not fight back with violence; it is not in their way.  As a result, they lose themselves.  It is hard for them to stay in touch with who they are today, as American Indians, because of the past.

2.       Another claim from Wasicuna's foreword is that one reason that the true history of the Dakota people has not been taught in schools is their honorable nature -- listening always.  This has made the Dakota history distorted, false, and untold.  People cannot have solidarity in their hearts, as a result.  Names of Minnesota cities like Shakopee and Chaska are misspelled and mispronounced, and the stories are shallow, Wasicuna says.  Furthermore, the Dakota people accept this, because they listen.  They were told not to be who they were, and they lost themselves.  Wasicuna states, "we were told not to speak our language and we listened."  As a result, their language is on the brink of extinction.  Wasicuna appreciates a move towards people seeking to hear Dakota stories, 150 years after the Dakota-U.S. War, so that healing can finally take place between people.

3.       The chapter is titled "Homelands" because it tells of the rich, spiritual connection that the Dakota feel to their home.  It talks about the meaning of home, the location of home, the presence of home in the Dakota language, and the spiritual nature of home.  All of these ideas contribute to a greater importance of home for the Dakota people.  Home is the land, where the Creator originates, and where life has meaning.  Therefore, taking away land -- home, earth, Ina, the mother -- the life that it provides is taken away.  Bdote Mni Sota, the confluence of the two rivers, is the home.  The spiritual home, where all Dakota are from.

CER on Things Fall Apart

       The vice of colonialism is brought out by the hypocrisy of white settlers in blindly achieving their ends, condemning already established culture despite knowing scarcely anything about it.  Yet it also festers in the native people who blindly follow these settlers, and polarize their homeland as a result.  As the threat that the white people pose to the Igbo people and the realm of Umuofia becomes increasingly grave, Obierika and Okonkwo have a conversation that channels author Chinua Achebe's perspective on colonialism.  They say, "'Does the white man understand our customs about land?'  'How can he when he does not even speak our tongue?  But he says our customs are bad...  How do you think we can fight when our own brothers have turned against us?  The white man... has won our brothers, and our clan can no longer act like one.  He has put a knife on the things that held us together and we have fallen apart'"  (Achebe 176).  Unity is what makes a community strong and well.  It is also necessary in resistance to colonialism.  Therefore, the way in which colonialism takes its toll, by attracting native community members to colonists, fosters disunity.  This diminishes the impact of any resistance and ensures that the settlers will have power.  It is the metaphorical knife with which white colonists, Achebe says, tear already established communities apart.  This passage's tone of gravity and severity, as well as use of metaphor, extend the impact of this idea.  Colonialism preys on those who are susceptible to influence and pits them against their community members, in a rejection of the cultural traditions that keep them together.

Danger of a Single Story Response

1.       Single stories are dangerous in many ways; this word is accurate, but really a single story in itself of what single stories can do.  Single stories are pervasive.  They spread like epidemic diseases, giving incomplete perspectives about a group to myriad people.  Single stories are insidious.  When they are told, they have truth, and this makes them seem harmless.  This makes them told more and more often because their simplicity and the categorization they offer is desired.  They give truth, but an understanding of a people or group that is false.  In doing so, they diminish the dignity of a group of people hindered in pursuing an identity they seek to project.  Single stories are crippling to the individual.  People around them think of them in a one, distinct fashion, and this burdens them from being themselves.  They want people to know them, but with the single story, they do not.  Single stories are polarizing.  They make one people distinctly different, and focus on these rather than numerous similarities between people which would serve to bring them together.

3.       As Chimamanda Adichie says, power is closely tied with the idea of a single story, and what single stories are told.  She uses the Igbo word nkali, which loosely translates to "to be greater than another," to describe the concept to listeners.  If who is in power is the storyteller, than those who do not have power -- because they are in the minority, because they are oppressed because of beliefs, or because they are simply perceived as distinctly different -- do not have their stories told.  American history is almost always told from the perspective of the white colonists because they had the power: they were the people who conquered and progressed with advanced technology, and the idea that they were superior to the Native Americans already there because of their vastly different societies, which made these Europeans view their ways as "savage."  Yet if the story is told from the Native Americans, whose stories were not told because they did not play a role in the development of the American state, but were pushed aside with intolerance and disregard to the oblivion of posterity, the complete story would change.  We would see incredibly complex societies torn apart because of power.  Today, voices of whites are elevated by their greater number and American tradition of institutionalized oppression against people of color, and especially, black people.  Their stories are told and told in greater number because of opportunities which arise from power.

5.       As a writer, Chinua Achebe is conquering the idea of the single story by showing the complex, sophisticated Igbo society in Umuofia of Nigeria.  American readers who have the idea that Africa is a one-dimensional place of violence have their views and projections of the world altered by Achebe's writing.  He shows that Africa is a place of extreme diversity, in which different countries have very different stories, by presenting a very unique culture and society in Nigeria.  Furthermore, he puts readers into sorts of intellectual traps by making readers draw conclusions about Igbo society as a whole solely by Okonkwo's perspective.  This is a single story about men in society, and he shows this to us by later offering other perspectives.  An example of the integration of the idea of the single story into Things Fall Apart is in the men's discussion of varying gender relations.  They see that their idea of how genders should interact is not the same as those in other villages.  Overall, the destroying of single stories in the readers' minds plays into the terrible impact of British colonialism.

Rabbit-Proof Fence Responses

3.       The idea of a home is central to an individual's identity.  A home often has your family, has memories and experiences of yours, and has love, safety, and comfort, all of which foster the preservation and development of your identity.  This identity gives you strength in yourself and a sense of belonging in the world.  When you are deprived of your home and all that comes with it, you lose a sense of dignity.  This is the story of what happened to the main characters Molly, Gracie, and Daisy in the movie Rabbit-Proof Fence.  Because they were forced away from Jigalong, their home and place of Aborigine culture, to assimilate into white, Australian-British society as half-castes in the Moore River Settlement, they almost immediately attempted to escape.  Molly led the charge to go home, with dogged determination and perseverance to continue that was motivated by her quiet dignity.  She refused to let Mr. Neville and his people take away the sense of self that she, her sister Daisy, and her cousin Gracie all had.  Throughout the long journey, and even when Daisy cannot walk, the group continues onward, seeking redemption against the whites who interned them and pursuing the sanctuary of home.  Tracker Moodoo shows his pride in the will of these girls when he says his only line of the film: "She's pretty clever that girl; she wants to go home."  This statement shows to us the admirable quality of perseverance against adversity to maintain one's identity through home.

6.       Talking embodies spirit and livelihood.  Talking establishes power and influence; those with a voice are those who win in society.  It is in this way that silence is a theme in colonialism, and how it was used in the film to illustrate this idea.  Those with voice and power were the British, and those who had their voices taken away were the Aborigine.  Much of the speaking in the film is done by British colonial authority imposing their will on Aborigine people.  Silence, too, shows the lack of transparency about the evils of the colonial process.  Colonialism rapidly and quietly forces native peoples to comply with invaders.  A lack of dialogue could present the idea that colonialism, as it happens so abruptly, gives words, and in turn, the individuals who speak them, minimal staying power.  But at the end of the movie, when Molly and Daisy's mother, grandmother, and other Aborigines are chanting, a shift in silence to words indicates a power shift to the Aborigines in maintaining their identities.

7.       The namesake for the movie Rabbit-Proof Fence is very powerful.  The fence is both a symbol for the preservation of identity and the love and security of home, in addition to resilience of characters against British colonialism and their coercive assimilation of Aborigine peoples.  When Molly comes into contact with a person on their escape route, she asks them the direction of the Rabbit-Proof fence.  We can tell that this serves as a sort of destination for the girls when we can see their palpable happiness when they reach it.  They know that the fence runs all the way to their home, a place they associate with love and safety.  The fence also serves as a symbol for resistance against British colonialism and the preservation of Aborigine identity and ideals.  The rabbits can symbolize invading British colonists to an already established Aborigine world -- they are stopped by the resilience of the fence of Molly, Daisy, and Gracie.  Yet the fence could also, earlier in the film, symbolize Mr. A. O. Neville's resistance to Aborigine people and his ideas.  He fences in Aborigine culture in an attempt to "Britainize" it.  However, the prevailing image is certainly one of Aborigine toil to maintain their home against adversity from those attempting to strip them of it.  The fence in the movie conveys the conflicting tensions of colonialism -- resistance, assimilation, preservation, and protection.

The Road Literary Devices

TWIST

• Tone/Mood (what words prove tone) -- connected w/ word choice
• tone: specifically, author's attitude towards subject
• mood: feeling evoked in the reader
• Word Choice (remember metaphor, symbolism, connotation, etc.) -- effect of words, as well
• Words that go beyond the literal to figurative language
• Simile
• Metaphor -- stronger than simile because of directness
• Hyperbole
• Symbolism -- something concrete which stands for something abstract
• Personification
• Imagery (five senses and any colors bringing story to life)
• Sound devices like onomatopoeia, alliteration, assonance (repetition of middle vowel sounds), consonance
• Style (how does author display it?)
• Vague language
• Dialect
• Repetition
• Theme (overall theme supported by a specific paragraph)

In The Road:

• Papa and Boy are used to convey the unnecessary nature of naming in a ravaged world -- names are superfluous where survival only matters
• Everything is immediate -- lack of punctuation

Introduction to the Kite Runner

Notes on The Kite Runner

Characterization:

Father/Son Bubble Map ~

Ali ~

Hassan ~

The Kite Runner: Final Exam Themes

"Sometimes in the early evening, I parked the car and walked up a freeway overpass. My face pressed against the fence, I'd try to count the blinking red taillights inching along, stretching as far as my eyestould see. BMWs. Saabs. Porsches. Cars I'd never seen in Kabul, where most people drove Russian Volgas, old Opels, or Iranian Paikans.

Almost two years had passed since we had arrived in the U.S., and I was still marveling at the size of this country, its vastness. Beyond every freeway lay another freeway, beyond every city another city hills beyond mountains and mountains beyond hills, and, beyond those, more cities and more people.

Long before the Roussi army marched into Afghanistan, long before villages were burned and schools destroyed, long before mines were planted like seeds of death and children buried in rock-piled graves, Kabul had become a city of ghosts for me. A city of harelipped ghosts.

America was different. America was a river, roaring along, unmindful of the past. I could wade into this river, let my sins drown to the bottom, let the waters carry me someplace far. Someplace with no ghosts, no memories, and no sins.

If for nothing else, for that, I embraced America." (p. 136)


        This passage develops the idea of hope in the novel.  Hosseini uses imagery, metaphor, and contrast to illustrate this idea.  In the first two paragraphs of this passage, the description of the country's vastness gives us an idea of the interminable nature of the hope that the protagonist, Amir, feels.  When Hosseini says, "Beyond every freeway lay another freeway, beyond every city another city hills beyond mountains and mountains beyond hills..." an image of the boundlessness of hope that America presents is given to the reader.  The author contrasts this in the following paragraph with metaphor, calling Kabul "A city of harelipped ghosts."  The tone of this paragraph is dark and ominous, representing Amir's past of regret, loss, and sorrow in Afghanistan.  The idea of ghosts illustrates the happiness that Amir once felt about Afghanistan, and that the joy perished with his loss in friendship with Hassan, a harelipped boy.  It portrays Afghanistan as a hopeless place.  The last paragraph serves to unify the preceding paragraphs, culminating the contrast to give us a complete idea of hope.  Hope is the future, blissful and oblivious, and it lies in America.  Afghanistan is a place of darkness.

The Kite Runner: themes

Taxonomy of Themes

A tonement
B etrayal
C ourage
D iscrimination
E quality
F abrication; Faith
G uilt
H armony; Hope
I nnocence; Isolation
J ustice
K indness
L oyalty; Love
M isery
N ostalgia
O blivion
P erseverance
Q uest
R edemption; Reconciliation; Resilience
S orrow; Separation
T olerance; Trust; Tenacity
U nity
V anity
W ar
X enocracy
Y outh
Z eal


Redemption: Redemption is bittersweet.

"I will do this and I will think of Him every day from from this day on if He only grants me this one wish: My hands are stained with Hassan's blood; I pray God doesn't let them get stained with the blood of his boy too." (p. 346)

Hosseini illustrates this nature of redemption by using hyperbole.  The staining of Hassan's blood exaggerates the impact of Amir's brother's death on his guilt; it is truly permanent, indicated by the stain.  Amir realizes that he must redeem himself and save his brother's son Sohrab, to not let his brother die in vain, and to add sweet to the bitterness of his guilt.  He cannot change his mistakes, but he can try to recover.

Oblivion: While blissful in the temporary, oblivion is pernicious in the long term.

"I was afraid the appeal of my life in America would draw me back, that I would wade back into that great, big river and let myself forget, let the things I had learned these last few days sink to the bottom.  I was afraid that I'd let the waters carry me away from what I had to do.  From Hassan.  From the past that had come calling." (p. 231)

The metaphor of America as a great, big river appears throughout the book and is analogous with the idea of oblivion.  Amir realizes the appeal of this oblivion from addressing his past of regret, but also understands that he must escape it to better himself.  It is pernicious.

Pitch Paper Feedback

General Improvements ~

(1)  Make sure the paper is adhering to APA formatting rules throughout; format all information, even if it does not flow well; for instance, cite paraphrases in introductory paragraph.

(2)  My paper has too high of a similarity percentage due to too many direct quotations.  I need to limit them, and paraphrase more -- but make sure to cite it the same.

(3)  Make sure to include transitions between paragraphs to help the argument flow better and add to the persuasive factor.

(4)  Each piece of evidence should correspond to an appropriate explanation; this will better the organization of my paper and make my arguments easier to understand.

Basic Action Plan:
As stated in my paper, I plan to utilize both advocacy and direct service in bettering the lives of homeless youth.  My direct service will consist of helping serve at Third Sunday Meals, and listening to the problems the youth are facing, in addition to possibly tutoring homeless youth via the School on Wheels program.  My indirect action will be as a part of the homelessness advocacy team at my church, of which I am a member.

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.