The Intuitionist: Found

On November 30, I rushed to the hospital in Glasgow. They were flying my grandmother from the Medical Center in Tompkinsville there to better treat her after she had stopped breathing, they said, as a result of pneumonia. I beat the helicopter and paced the hall of the ICU as they transferred her into a room. It was there we learned that she had had a massive heart attack. It was sudden. The doctor was direct in his prognosis: she was beyond their care and needed to be moved to Bowling Green. It was a heavy blow to us who had waited by her side in Tompkinsville for six hours thinking she had pneumonia. I followed the ambulance to Bowling Green, an ambulance because the weather would not permit a helicopter to fly. We got to Bowling Green and they said it could be several hours wait while they completed the surgery. Not able to stay in a room of thirty people I volunteered to return to my apartment to get overnight clothes for everyone about my size. On my way out the door I grabbed the Intuitionist.

In the waiting room, I read the same page over and over and over. I didn’t see the words, but I couldn’t look at my mother’s face, my grandfather’s face. I couldn’t let them see mine. Nurses came in and out updating us with worse an worse news. They moved her to another room… they were now doing this. That wasn’t working… they were going to try doing this and then that and then… there was nothing left to do. I held my grandmother’s hand as she slipped away. I promised I would forever take care of her family. I would always miss her. I would never forget her. As I said the words into her ear, tears slipped down her check. She’s crying I said, but the nurses said no, it was something else. Still, I wiped her tears, I held her hand, I said good bye.

The Intuitionist was left on the table. My tears streaked on that first page. They tracked down my mother and returned it to her- I don’t know what to do with it now. Every time I see it, I think it will bring on a bad memory. I don’t want to remember the hospital; I want to remember her laugh and smile and joy. But I can’t quite bring myself to get rid of it. Have you ever had something you didn’t like, but couldn’t quite get rid of? Have you stumbled upon it hidden away somewhere and experienced the rush of emotion from the memory?

Reflections on the Semester's Readings

At the end of the semester, I would like to reflect on what I have learned through readings assigned for this course. My favorite text is beyond a doubt Alexie’s True Diary. I loved this book. I wouldn’t recommend it to the young adolescents it is intended for; I think it is more appropriate for adults. As an adult, I found it hilarious. I loved the comics. I’ve never seen a text blend in aside pictures more efficiently. They flowed smoothly and added so much depth to the text.

My least favorite novel is the one I trudged through reading- Shadow Tag. While some of my peers flew through it, I had to make myself read it. I think the content just didn’t agree with me. I didn’t really like the content of Precious, or some of the other novels either, but in those the characters were the victims of behaviors. Irene in Shadow Tag just got on my nerves. She was cold, manipulative, and just plain mean. I think some would refer to her as a bitch.

So what was your favorite read? What was your least?

Text to World Connections?

Since we are in our final days of Multicultural Literature… our blogging team has been discussing ways that we can take what we have learned from this course and how we can apply these ideas and themes in our individual lives. (“Text to world connections.”)

I realized that after this course, I pay more attention to a lot of news stories that deal with different ethnicities than I used to (hence the former post about the ADA racial discrimination). I think it’s amazing that these multicultural course themes, ideas, and problems are everywhere around us, but most of us are so self absorbed in our own lives and with the people who are similar to us that we have no idea about what’s going on in the rest of the world.

I came across this website that features dates and locations for multicultural celebrations all over the USA (and the rest of the world if you keep navigating through the site). The best way to search for a specific type of festival is to use the “Find” feature and search “multicultural,” since all the festivals have tagged key words in their descriptions. As a future teacher, I think it would be fantastic to have my students attend one of these festivals so that I could take some of the themes that I have learned in this course and pass it on to my own students. Many of the festivals that are held in the south wouldn’t be difficult to attend during a day trip or something. I have enjoyed this course, the literature and especially the discussions from a variety of perspectives and different walks of life. It has really helped me become more aware of what’s happening in my own life.

Here is the website for those who are interested; let me know if you ever decide to attend one and I’ll join you! :)

http://www.2camels.com/festivals/usa.php

Here’s An Idea!

Due to the fact that this is our last week, I wanted to make a proposal. In my American Lit. 2 class, we recently finished reading a novel by Ruth L. Ozeki called My Year of Meats. Ozeki is a Japanese-American from Connecticut. The novel has earned numerous awards including the Kiriyama Pacific Rim Award, and the Noble American Book Award. But that’s not the best thing about this novel. Ozeki manages to capture the true spirit of both a Japanese-American and a Japanese woman while effectively communicating the real facts about factory farming.

Jane, a documentarian from Quam, Minnesota now living and thriving in New York. The novel takes off from the first page with the statement, “Meat is the Message.” We soon learn that Jane is embarking on a new adventure of running a documentary series called My American Wife! which will broadcast in Japan. The series is supposed to highlight the stereotypical “American wife” and her family through showing Japanese audiences new recipes for meat. Jane takes over the show and slowly comes to a realization about meat and its production process from the slaughter house to the kitchen table. But the Ozeki doesn’t stop there. On the other side of the world in Japan, Akiko watches and critiques each episode for her husband Joichi Ueno, the production head of My American Wife!. As the story continues, the reader gets explore the worlds of an American documentarian, a Japanese housewife, and the world of meat.

Overall, the novel is eye-opening and realistic. Its creatively written using not only both first and third person prose, but also faxes, letters, and journals to carry the plot. I believe Ruth Ozeki’s My Year of Meats would be a great addition to our Multicultural Lit. class and allow students to discover many different forms of narration and two different cultures.

Discrimination in the Workplace - even the ADA

Focusing on the theme of discrimination (racial or otherwise) in the workplace, as seen in The Intuitionist, I thought this story would be interesting to share and read. A dear friend of mine is in dental school, so any news stories that deal with the ADA tend to catch my eye. Raymond Gist, who is featured in the article, is the first African-American president of the American Dental Association-- elected just this October. We don't think about racial discrimination still occuring in the work place, but it does indeed happen and should never be ignored.

First paragraph of the article...

"In a historic move, the American Dental Association has apologized for not taking a stand against discriminatory membership practices. In an open letter, Dr. Raymond Gist, who became the ADA's first African-American president in October, said the dentist group should have done a better job in making sure minorities could join affiliated state and local organizations before the mid-1960s...."

Read the rest of the story here...

Racial Allegories, Supplementary Reading for The Intuitionist, and Harry Potter

"The freshest racial allegory since Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man and Toni Morrison's The Bluest Eye."
           -Walter Kirn, Time

Racial allegories are stories with deeper meanings that are directly and sometimes indirectly associated with race. The Intuitionist is a racial allegory along with the texts that Kirn mentions in the above quote. All of these texts focus on the hardships of people that are not of the dominant race. These texts follow the lives of such people and how they overcome prejudice and racism to make their own places in the world. Both of the texts above are great supplementary material to Whitehead’s novel. Unfortunately, I have not read either of the texts, but with the brief summaries of them, I can tell that they truly portray the direct association with race that I mentioned above.

While researching racial allegories for this post I came across an interesting site that considers the Harry Potter series a racial allegory. Being a fan of the serious and having read it several times, I found this label interesting. J.K. Rowling does a good job with creating a world where race has no importance, but this site expressed how Rowling uses blood lineage and species in a similar way that Whitehead, Morrison, and Ellison use race. In the Harry Potter series the main problem is a war for equality among the magical and the non-magical, humans and creatures, and creatures and creatures. Essentially, they are fighting to establish and maintain “world peace.” They want to rid the world of darkness—dark magic and quite possibly the inherent dark side of mankind. The whole series establishes an argument for equality. Half-bloods are just as “good” as pure-bloods. Two of the main characters, Lord Voldemort (the antagonist) and Harry Potter (the protagonist) have muggle blood in their family bloodlines. Women are offered equality in both job opportunities, pay, and respect. Hermione Granger (another main character) is one of the most valued educational minds of her generation. Without her, Harry would not have succeeded in any of his many adventures at Hogwarts. While these books do not directly deal with race, Rowling did not completely leave out the idea of prejudice. She established a sense of equality while simultaneously questioning the equality of impure bloodlines and “lesser” species. I didn’t think Harry Potter was a racial allegory, but it is. It just deals with race in a more indirect and symbolic way.

Can you think of any other novel that may fall into the category of racial allegory? Does  it have a direct or an indirect association with race? What qualifies it as a racial allegory?

Written By: Elizabeth Willbanks

Education Growth

I was actually intrigued by how much I enjoyed reading this novel. I have been worried about this book since the beginning of the semester because I knew that it was dialect heavy, but I was actually impressed with how easily I read this book. While the dialect was heavy and somewhat difficult for me, it was not nearly as problematic as I assumed it would be. Oddly enough, the two books that initially turned me off to reading strong dialects were The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and Their Eyes Were Watching God—the latter being the most painful read I have ever experienced in terms of dialect. This semester I am forced to re-read Huck Finn, a book that I completely hated in high school because Jim’s speech made me feel like a slow reader who didn’t belong in an A.P. English class. However, when I started reading it again this semester, it didn’t seem quite as difficult as it did in the past. I wasn’t so overwhelmed with correcting and making sense of comment. It just kind of worked itself out. Between this experience and the amazing intrigue I found in the style of Push, I think I have grown as a reader. I think that I no longer struggle as much with the variations from standard English that most books use in dialogue and style. I didn’t feel like I was reading any slower than I normally do. I will probably always read slowly, but I can actually appreciate this style of writing more and might even try spicing up the dialogue in my own writing with unique dialects.

Have any of you experienced this type of “educational” growth?

What was your opinion of the literacy theme and dialect in this book?

Precious's Coping Mechanism

Push is a novel of a girl who doesn't get the guy, is raped repeatly, gets HIV, and has two children before the age of sixteen, one with Down's syndrome. It is such a sad tale; I admire the strength she had to keep going. I admire anyone who overcomes any situation even remotely similar to Precious's.

I would argue that one of the biggest disappointing factors that could have saved Precious is the New York City public education system. How does such a red flag go unnoticed? While reading this I smiled at the littlest accomplishments that she achienved. "Listen baby, Muver love you," she writes. "Muver not dumb. Listen baby: ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ. Thas the alphabet. Twenty-six letters in all. Them letters make up words. Them words everything" (66). I love that she gets how important education is. Even when her mother tells her it is stupid, that she is stupid, she persists. Education is her ticket out.

The book is narrated in a diary style. She writes of horrific events in her life in a blunt, honest way. Each entry of her book shows a small step in her education. Her reading level grows from not knowing all the letters, to reading at a junior high level. As a future education, the self-diligence was astounding to me. To come through so much, and then be so happy at reading a sentence, at writing a sentence. I felt so connected to her.

You can't blame her for not knowing curriculum or for reading on such a low level. Her mind is clearly not on lessons: she is revisting all the abuse and imagining herself in a happier place or circumstance.

In traumatic experiences, I turn to God and pray, but Precious doesn't have that. Precious copes witht elaborate daydreams and a fantasy world. How do you cope?

Do you think this diligence to learn is realistic? Would a girl in this situation normally break down and give up orr fight to survive? What makes Precious continue?

Fiction or Nonfiction

For some reason I always thought this story was nonfiction, meaning it really did happen. Setting down the book, however, I noticed that the back cover stated it as “fiction.” This threw me off. Everyone I’ve ever talked to about this book or the movie that goes with it has been convinced that it’s a true account of some woman’s life. If this is correct, I would like to know because it changes the story. Whatever the story is, I think that it being fiction or nonfiction really matters. It changes the way you will perceive that story and the characters in it. For instance, I just read a play in my Am. Lit. 2 class called Walls by Jeannie Barrago. It was an absolutely wonderful play giving many different sides of the building of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial. I thought it was a good play before I went to class and found out that the characters in it were actual people. They actually went through a version of what the play is about. Knowing this simple piece of knowledge changed the play for me. I want to know if Push is actually just a made up story that could have easily been someone’s life or if it really was someone’s life because the difference can make all the difference.

What do you think, does knowing what is real and what isn’t in a novel or other forms of literature change it for you?

Do you feel differently for the characters if you know that they are real people who experienced the situations you are reading about?

Would you prefer to know or be left in the dark?

A Call for Change - African American Male Student Statistics

Earlier this week, Kelly brought up the topic of African American literature and prompted discussions about how often we have been exposed to it during our academic journeys. The majority of us agreed that the exposure was pretty minimal, and on some of the occasions it was taught, it was often snugly sandwiched in a quaint “multicultural unit” that featured snippets of stories and accomplishments of non-Caucasian figures. Since our group consists of four future English teachers, I wanted to explore African American literature in schools a little further.

Langston Hughes predominately wrote about everyday African American life, including (everyday) struggles in society. While thinking about these themes and checking the internet news this week, I came across a really interesting article that released statistics and reports about the academic status of male African American students in this country. The Council of Great City Schools’ startling report includes several statistics—a couple of examples:

- The average ACT scores of AA male students were lower
than those for white male students in English, mathematics,
and reading. In 2009, the gap between [the two groups]
was six points in English, five points in
mathematics, and six points in reading.

- Black males are twice as likely to drop out of high
school as white males.


The authors of the research warn: “The nation's young black males are in a state of crisis. This report is likely to make people angry, and it should. We hope that this is a louder and more jolting wake-up call to the nation than this country is used to hearing." Though these statistics are impacted by a variety of factors, please keep in mind that not every African American male is at risk; additionally, the report does briefly mention the other side of these statistics.

President Obama’s “Stay in School” speech last fall was primarily directed at students, encouraging them to remember that “there is no excuse for not trying.” I can’t help but wonder though, how many teachers are at fault here? Given the fact that we all agreed that little African American culture and literature was taught in high schools, I wonder what would happen if we actually celebrated more African American literature OUTSIDE of Black History Month and the “multicultural units?” Do you all think that giving students more exposure to Langston Hughes and other diverse authors would not only culturally benefit ALL of the students, but maybe even inspire some at risk students? Why do we focus so much on the “dead white guys” when our classrooms are so colorfully full of diversity?

Advancement in Literacy? or Just Politically Correct?

 

"‘They preaches you a pretty sermon and they don't say nothin'. They sings you a song, and they don't say nothin'. But Cora's here, honey, and she's gone tell 'em what they done to you. She's gonna tell 'em why they took you to Kansas City.’”

- Langston Hughes “Cora Unashamed” –

I have said this many times to many people. I do not like reading heavy dialect, but Langston Hughes’s “Cora Unashamed” did not bother me like other examples of dialect have in the past. I realize that the dialect in this story is not quite as thick and heavy as the dialect in books like Their Eyes Were Watching God or Huck Finn. The dialect in this short story was wonderful. It added such an amazing element to the story. The theme of this blog is language and literacy. I think that this story is a great example of how literacy has advanced. Cora’s speech was intended to sound uneducated, but many people today still talk with similar slurs and blends. Words like “gonna” instead of “going to” and “yous” instead of “you” are still popular. The difference today is that this type of language is no longer stereotyped as uneducated. Many people may believe that it sounds uneducated, but this idea does not often extend to the person. I think much of this has to do with the importance society places on what is “fair” and “politically correct.” It is no longer widely accepted to judge a person’s intelligence level by their dialect. It is still done, but not so much in the public eye. In the past, a person like Cora would have been uneducated and would have sounded uneducated. Today, Cora could walk on this campus and speak in the same manner, but very few people would point out how uneducated she sounds to her face. Another reason for the new found politeness is the fact that there now exists an “educated” dialect. People can speak a certain way to make themselves sound educated even if they are not. Educated people can “sound” stupid. I think the fact that we have learned how to play with, manipulate and accept the wide varieties of speech and dialect really shows far we have come in this field.

Discussion Questions: 

1. There is a difference is teasing about an accent and truly getting ridiculed for a dialect, have you experienced either of these? How did it make you feel? What did you do about it?

2. Much of dialect is considered an African American difference. What experiences have you had with an unfamiliar dialect that does not involve the African American race? What does this say about the misconception of dialect and its association with labels like stupid, uneducated, etc.

3. Do you think that the new found acceptance of dialect is evidence of advancement in literacy or is it just society's worry over what is and is not politically correct?

                                               Written By: Elizabeth Willbanks

Play Productions

In the last post, Kelly briefly talked about the production of Alice Walker's The Color Purple as a musical in her post introducing African American literature. In the last several weeks, several works of literature have been produced in our area- Death of a Salesman, Midsummer Night's Dream- and more are to come - Hamlet, Romeo and Juliet. Since all four group members are future educators, I wanted to ask about your thoughts about teaching plays. Will you take your classes on trips to see plays whenever there is one you may utlitlize? Will you reowrk your curriculum to follow the productions? Or do youu think a video or class rendition can capture the true workings of a play?

In my high school, we did a humanities rotation class that switched subjects every nine weeks: music, drama, and art. In drama class, everyday we watched movies of plays and I grew to hate them. In ENG 476 (Literature for Secondary Curriculum) Dr. Lenoir showed a movie dramatization of Julius Caesar. It wasn't a play, but the acotrs said most of the lnes verbatim. It was like watching a regular movie, albeit Shakespeare. I liked it.

What do you think is the most effective way to introduce theater to your students? Do you think you have gained benefical knowledge for teaching plays while studying at WKU?

The Influences of African American Literature

Throughout the history of America, those who have been oppressed have been contributing to the literature of this country. Like every other minority group in the United States, some of the literature is good and some is not. Thankfully there is a plethora of good literature which teaches us more about African American culture. The most influential African American literature has been brought to the masses since the mid 1800s. In 1845, Fredrick Douglass published his autobiography Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave which opened the public’s eyes the dealings of slavery. He gave an inside look at the tool that slavery takes on the body and the mind. In the 1920s, a new movement began which reinvented African American Literature. The Harlem Renaissance was a movement encouraging and “celebrating black voices in the arts” according to enotes.com. Out of this movement came Langston Hughes and Countee Cullen whose “strongest poems question the benevolence of a Creator who has bestowed a race with such mixed blessings.” (poets.org) Throughout the rest of the century, African American Literature blossomed and contributed to the performing arts and even mainstream television. Alice Walker’s The Color Purple was transformed into an award winning Broadway musical while Oprah Winfrey was taking over day time television with her talk show and soon developed a book club.

Sources:

http://www.enotes.com/topics/african-american-literature
http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/5657

Discussion Questions:

1. What were you taught about African American Lit. in high school?
2. Did you read any? If so, what did you read?
3. Have you taken any African American Lit. classes outside of high school?

Think About It

Styling

In many novels, the style isn’t very important. That is not true with several of the novels, short stories, and poems we’ve read for this class. For example, Sherman Alexie using a similar style in each of the stories we’ve read. They include a deep characterization of the protagonist and a rich sense of self and truth. On blackboard almost everything enjoyed the boldness of Alexie for writing in a very honest manner. Elizabeth, for example sparked a discussion on the possibility of over using arousal in The Diary of a Part-Time Indian.

With this in mind, do you believe that style is an important aspect of a story? Do you think style distracts from a story?

Formatting


Though the format of novels changes from author to author, like many other aspects when writing, it can truly add to a work and change it in some ways. Alexie for example, always uses subheadings in his short stories and brief chapters in his novel whereas Erdrich using extremely long chapters with very short openings to those chapters in the form of the two diaries. Naturally, the form of poems change depending on the subject, content, and author’s preference. However, some author’s are known for the format of their poems. Shakespeare, though archaic compared to what we have been reading this semester, developed the Shakespearean sonnet.

Do you think the format of a novel, short story, or poem is able to distract from that piece of writing? Do you think format can add something new to a piece of writing?
What are some examples of formatting that you find distracting? Have any of the things we’ve read so far been difficult for you to read because of their formatting?

Isabel Allende's The Sum of Our Days + Louise Erdrich's Shadow Tag (intro)

Isabel Allende's method of communication largely revolves around her correspondence with family, her "tribe," as she calls it. She repeatedly credits her daily contact with her mother as the initial building blocks for the chapters of her memoir, The Sum of Our Days.

"Thanks to my mother's epistolary talent and my obligation to answer her, I have in my hands a voluminous correspondence in which events are kept fresh. That is how I have been able to write this memoir. The purpose of that methodical correspondence is to keep pulsing the cord that has joined us since the instant of my conception, but it is also an exercise to strengthen memory, that ephemeral mist in which recollections dissipate, change, and blend together; at the end of our days it turns out that we have lived only what we can evoke. What I don't write I forget; it is as if it never happened" (200).

Allende's writing and language primarily revolves around her clan and the life they so vibrantly live each day. She openly writes of her relationship with her husband, both the good times and the bad, ultimately allowing readers to discover just how unique and beautiful their marriage is-- but not without including the years of work and patience that they have tirelessly put forth.

While Allende's experiences leave readers with a beautifully descriptive image of two people who have managed to stand each other long enough to realize that they are soul mates, Louise Erdrich paints a very different scene with her novel's words. Erdrich's novel Shadow Tag is about a woman, Irene America, who is trapped in a loveless marriage. Her husband, an artist whose success stems from paintings of Irene in various poses, exhibits many of the self destructive traits that Sherman Alexie referred to in his texts.


"The portraits were everywhere. By remaining still, in one position or another, for her husband, she had released a double into the world. It was impossible, now, to withdraw that reflection. Gil owned it. He had stepped on her shadow." - Shadow Tag (40)

Irene spills her thoughts onto the pages of two diaries; one she knows her husband reads through when she isn't looking, and another which is locked away in a safety deposit box at the bank. Their bitter relationship and her resentment inspires her to leave entries about elaborate affairs and sexual escapades in her "fake" diary, all carefully designed to enrage him each time he reads it behind her back.

In a 2010 book review, the Washington Post said, "The man [Irene] hates is also the man she loves, and his passionate desperation to win her back is alternately endearing and repellent, eventually threatening. It's a devastating portrayal of the circular insanity of romantic obsession."

Some Discussion Questions to think about as you finish The Sum of Our Days and embark upon Shadow Tag:

1.) Gil seems to think that Irene struggles with reading and making sense of any significant works of literature, yet pours over her diary entries and accepts them at face value. Who (if anyone) is more at fault for the sneaky behavior? What does Irene hope to accomplish in each of her "blue" diary entries?

2.) In addition to Irene and Gil's marriage, consider Allende's "overbearing" personality and involvement in her own family... Is respect for privacy or bold truth more important in relationships?

3.) What kind of affect does this dysfunctional lifestyle seem to have on Gil and Irene's three children? Are they similar or different to Sherman Alexie's characters in The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian?

Isabel Allende's The Sum of Our Days

Isabel Allende's The Sum of Our Days is a deeply revealing memoir that recounts all the gritty details of the lives of her extraordinary family. Allende bares her soul after the painful death of her daughter and as she writes, she explores a wide variety of topics in the wake of her loss, including marriage, spirituality, and motherhood. Despite the devastating and often dramatic events that Allende remembers, she bravely encounters each memory and meticulously constructs her thoughts and stories as if she was carrying on an intimate conversation with a close friend.

In a 2008 interview, Allende was asked about the interesting themes and lively stories that are featured in the memoir. Allende responded, "'All stories are interesting if told in the right tone. When I came to live here, friends, publishers asked me, 'What are you going to write about now, in Marin, [with] no more ghosts, premonitions?' I told them, 'It's pretty weird here.'" She continued, "In the 17 years since Paula died, many things happened to the family. I had written about it all: Every day, I write a letter to my mother with the events and the mood of the day. She saves them for me and each year gives me back a year of letters. ... As I sat down Jan. 8, 2006, I was ready to start an historical novel. Then my agent called from Spain. She said, 'Write a memoir, before you forget everything.'"

Allende's writing style is often considered to contain elements of "magic realism." By Wikipedia's definition, "'magic realism' is an aesthetic style or genre of fiction in which magical elements are blended into a realistic atmosphere in order to access a deeper understanding of reality. These magical elements are explained like normal occurrences that are presented in a straightforward manner which allows the 'real' and the 'fantastic' to be accepted in the same stream of thought. It has been widely considered a literary and visual art genre; creative fields that exhibit less significant signs of magic realism include film and music."

Discussion Questions:

1. Some of Allende's family members were/are terrified of being written about. Do you think it's beneficial to release a "tell-all" memoir such as The Sum of Our Days, or were all the elements of her story relevant?

2. Allende's life is almost ridiculously dramatic at times. She has even been quoted as saying, "You can tell the deepest truths with the lies of fiction." Do you think this is "magic realism" at work, or do you think her story can be literally interpreted at face value?

3. Which sub story in Allende's memoir do you think best represented her reputation for being such an influential and inspiring Latin American writer?

Poetry by Louise Erdrich and Joy Harjo

Joy Harjo and Louise Erdrich are authors of Native American descent. Their poetry is full of unique and original metaphors that shape and add intrigue to their writing. Much of their writing also contains Indian dialect and cultural references.

Erdrich’s poem “Family Reunion” is an example of the Indian dialect I mentioned above. I think this poem shows the uniqueness to their way of speaking and introduces to the reader to the customs of the people in terms that are understandable and relate-able.

“Ah punka, you’s my Debby, come and ki me. / …Them’s Indian dogs, Ray says, lookit how they know me.”

I find it interesting that this is Erdrich’s example of dialect. It isn’t that much different from modern-day southern dialects. I hear people say “them’s” and “lookit” quite often. I think the main difference is the italicized words. The words “punka” and “ki” are quite different from modern-day vocabulary.

Both poets master metaphors. Many metaphors are tired and overused, but I found such originality in their metaphors and analogies.

Erdrich examples:

“Captivity” – “After that the birds mocked. / Shadows gaped and roared / and the trees flung down / their sharpened lashes.” Not only is this a beautiful image, but it continues the idea of the poem that the narrator could find no safety. Not even the wilderness warrented a safe return. Instead, it frightened her enough to prevent her from running. It continues that idea that there is no hope or chance of freedom. Nature is pushing closer to her enemy, her captor.

“Indian Boarding School: The Runaways” – “All runaways wear dresses, long green ones, / the color you would think shame was.” In her interviews, Erdrich mentions that Indian children were stripped from parents and forced into boarding schools. I am not surprised to find that many probably tried to run away, to find their homes, their parents. I think the mention of shame is a statement about how the sudden changes in their culture—the forced changes—made young children feel ashamed of their heritage. It made the think that being Indian was a bad thing, a shameful thing.

Harjo examples:

“A Map to the Next World” – The Map analogy continues throughout the entire poem and brings out the overall of theme of “finding” the light. The narrator in this poem is giving someone else instructions on finding the new world and rebuilding their world. The map is his key to completing this task, but it is more than that. It is a lesson in what NOT to do. It’s a key in what went wrong last time. It twists the idea of a map to find your way to the idea of a “treasure” map—the treasure being the new world, the rebuilding.

 “Take note of the proliferation of supermarkets and malls, the / altars of money. They best describe the detour from grace.” This detail about the map sharpens the theme of the work. Their “city,” “heritage,” “language,” etc. has been forgotten and lost due to a fall from grace, due to sin. This quote shows the sinfulness of living materialistically and “in the world” which are the reasons behind the fall in the first place.

“Insomnia and the Seven Steps to Grace” – “though the season before dawn is always winter” This metaphor associates the moments before dawn, the moments before sunrise with the coldest time of the year. I think it correlates well with the theme of the poem. It fits the idea that “insomniacs” or third shifters have a much more difficult time seeing the beauty of the day because they are constantly surrounded by darkness. Coldness is often paired with darkness. The lack of light is the same as the lack of heat.

Discussion Questions

1.      Do you think that language (dialect, metaphor, analogy, etc.) has any effect on the success or failure of writing in general? How does your opinion relate to Erdrich’s and Harjo’s poems?

2.      Many people see certain dialects as a lack of intelligence. Given the example of dialect in “Family Reunion,” do you think that there is a literacy issue in some parts of the country?

3.      What other examples of language (dialect, metaphor, analogy, etc.)  can you find that connects to the themes of these poems?

Sherman Alexie's The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian

Sherman Alexie’s novel, The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian is a semi-autobiographical story that partially channels Alexie's own childhood experiences and views on life through the novel’s main character, Junior Spirit.

Junior’s “diary” offers readers a glimpse at the emotional and often entertaining Native American teen’s outlook on life as he is trying to navigate and survive an “all white” high school. Junior chooses to attend this school because he wants to broaden his educational experiences and step outside of the cultural box and destructive cycles his family and people have been accustomed to on the reservation.
“But we reservation Indians don’t get to realize our dreams. We don’t get those chances. Or choices. We’re just poor. That’s all we are.” (p. 13)

Junior soon learns that this new school is full of challenges, but through his experiences and eventually with the help of his new friends, he realizes that he possesses the power to break the cycle of destructive reservation life and rise above it.
“We were supposed to be happy with our limitations. But there was no way Penelope and I were going to sit still. Nope, we both wanted to fly.” (p. 112)
Junior has his own unique way of communicating with the world around him. He doesn’t hesitate to use biting sarcasm, foul words, or even exaggerated cartoon depictions of his family and friends in order to express his thoughts.
While attending his new high school, Junior and his friend discuss the idea of extensively analyzing and reading books, as well as Junior’s drawings and their importance in his life.

Junior tells Gordy, “I draw cartoons…. I take them seriously. I use them to understand the world. I use them to make fun of the world. To make fun of people. And sometimes I draw people because they’re my friends and family. And I want to honor them…”
Gordy reassures Junior that this method of expressing thoughts through a different language technique is nothing to be ashamed of, and points out, “…If you’re good at it, and you love it, and it helps you navigate the river of the world, then it can’t be wrong.” (pg. 95)




Discussion Questions:

1. Why is getting off the reservation so imperative for Junior, and not important for other characters (like Rowdy)?

2. Is it important that Alexie’s life could have been very close to Junior Spirit’s? How does the fact that it’s “semi-autobiographical” affect the language and format of the novel?

3. From the Discussion Guide in the back of the novel (pg. 232):

Cultural outsiders who write young adult fiction tend to romanticize the impoverishment of Indians. Junior is having none of this: “It sucks to be poor, and it sucks to feel that you somehow deserve to be poor. You start believing that you’re poor because you’re stupid and ugly. And then you start believing that you’re stupid and ugly because you’re Indian. And because you’re Indian you start believing that you’re destined to be poor. It’s an ugly circle and there’s nothing you can do about it. Poverty doesn’t give you strength or teach you lessons about perseverance. No, poverty only teaches you how to be poor.”


How does Junior’s direct language address this stereotypical portrayal of Indians? What about his language draws the teen reader into the realities of his life?

Sherman Alexie’s Short Stories


What You Pawn I Will Redeem by Sherman Alexie

Sherman Alexie’s “What You Pawn I Will Redeem” is about a homeless Indian who attempts to reclaim his grandmother’s regalia. It is out of the goodness of the people he sees throughout the day the reader spends with the author that Jackson is able to accomplish his goal.

War Dances by Sherman Alexie

A Spokane Indian is told that he has a brain tumor. During his troubling time while adjusting to this shocking news, the narrator regales tales of his time with his dead father and learns more about his grandfather’s time in the war.

Smoke Signals screenplay by Sherman Alexie

The tale of an Indian whose father has recently passed away and he must come to terms with his loss while getting to know the father who was a drunk and an abuser.

1. What do you think about the kindness and generosity of the people in Alexie’s “What You Pawn I Redeem?” Do you think it possible for people today to be that kind to a homeless person or someone in general? Have you ever happened upon a person like the police officer or the pawnbroker?

2. In both of Alexie’s stories there are digressions which tell a tale about a past relative of the narrator. In “What You Pawn I Will Redeem” the tale is of Jackson’s grandmother and her dancing in the regalia; “War Dances” contains many digressions about the narrator’s father and the male members of the family’s war-heavy pasts. Do you think these add to or distract from the story as a whole? Is there one digression in particular that you feel helps or hurts the overall story?

3. In the movie Smoke Signals, Victor says, “like throwing things away when they have no more use.” He is referencing throwing his father’s ashes into a river in Spokane. Do you believe that this is a true statement, that people have no use after they have passed away?

I don’t think that people who are gone have no use as Victor stated near the end of Smoke Signals. If anything people are even more useful after death for the knowledge they have passed on to us and on to others. Abraham Lincoln for example, is still useful many decades after his death because of the influence he had over the change in United States. Our parents, no matter how good or bad will be useful after their deaths because they teach us and have taught us what we should and should not be and do. Without the life and sometimes the specific death of a person, the future can have no chance of being different from the past. Learning from those who have passed away is how we change the future and make it a future and not just a reoccurring event.

To find out more about Native American traditional dress visit: http://www.native-languages.org/clothing.htm

Dream Homes by Joyce Zonana

In Joyce Zonana’s Dream Homes, the author recalls her experiences with literacy and language. Even from an early age Zonana knew that language separated her parents and family from mainstream America. The first example of this occurs on page 8 of her memoir, when her mother recounts their experience with being quarantined shortly after they first immigrated:


“Tu etais tre malade,” my mother tells me. “You were very sick. You had a high fever, and they told us we had to stay in our room.”

“We were quarantined?” The idea is exotic, simultaneously romantic and frightening, evoking scenes of turn-of the-century immigration, the long lines and cold examination rooms at Ellis Island. Where were we? On the boat? In New York Harbour? My mother’s focus drifts.

“Yes, quarantined,” she repeats. “That’s the word. On etai si bite. We were so stupid. I stayed with you in the hotel for three days while Felix went out. No one ever checked.”

Her parents knew so little of the new language that they had a hard time communicating with border officials and people they came in contact with. They settled in a neighborhood where most people spoke their language; they felt comfortable there. Her mother felt most at home in the market, because it reminded her of her old home. This idea reinforces the salad bowl metaphor. In opposition to the melting pot theory, immigrants actually merge together in groups; though they are part of the whole, they function as separate independent communities. Zonana’s family functioned that way: they were part of the community, yet they were isolated by their differences. Their neighbors might have been united in some ways, but her family was Egyptian Jewish, and that set them apart.

Throughout her life Zonana searches for where she belongs. The older generation of her family connects through their old homestead, but Zonana was too young to remember it. She questions adults all the time, and asks them how something made them feel, what they saw, what they remember. She gets short, sharp answers, like the one quoted above. Her family either doesn’t want to speak about their pain or do not have the words to express it. She experiences Diaspora without really remembering the land that she lost. The younger generation of the family conforms better with the American culture because that is all they have known and they don’t miss the difference.

She recalls being at the airport when her mother’s parents were going through customs. Her mother was so excited. She banged on the glass separating the arrivals from the waiting families. Zonana wrote that, “In those days, I hated to be out with my mother in public. There she would be, obviously attached to me, speaking in her awkward, accented English, asking questions that embarrassed me, acting so unmistakably foreign, while I ached to be like everyone else.” When Zonana learns that neither grandparent knows English and sees how they stand helpless and speechless with the customs man ordering them to open bags and answer questions, she wants to help; she “wanted to run down to those old people trapped behind that glass wall, unable to speak the language, lost. I wanted to take their hands, to talk to the customs officer in my perfect, unaccented English, to lead them proudly from the chaos of the airport… (pg. 14).”

Throughout the entire book she searches for where she belongs and what it means to be Jewish. She wanted her dad to teach her Arabic so she can understand the older generation and therefore belong to that group, but he won’t. Her parents want her to connect to the American culture. When she grows up she hires a tutor to teach her the ancient language, and struggles with it because she is not learning it as a first language. She struggles throughout her entire life to belong to one culture or another, eager to fit into at least one.

Written by: Amanda Walker (NOTE: We are still working on how to pull in more than one author.)

Discussion Questions

1. What scene do you think shows Zonana’s desire to belong most? Do you think the desire is stronger to fit in with her family or her new friends?

2. Do you think a difference in language is the strongest divide between those immigrating to America and those born here? Does the scene of Zonana’s grandparents at customs influence your position?

3. Why was her mother ashamed of her ignorance? Do you think Zonana shared her mother’s sense of shame or did she pity her mother for her circumstance?