Final Post

This class has been so helpful to me in various ways. Woman’s literature has helped me to open up to different aspects of a woman’s life. Her pain, her suffering, her happiness, her pride, her shame, and even her vagina. We read several books that I loved and simply couldn’t put down. Our class also went through books that sometimes had hard concepts to grasp or different writing styles that were so extreme from the last books we read. Not only could I relate to these women in the books, but it helped me realize a lot about myself as I read. These novels were able to pull me in and with it, they took my heart and soul and I’ve even kept a few books on my book shelf so I can read them whenever I desire.

My favorite book by far was Eve Enslers “The Vagina Monologues”. I read it one Sunday morning from cover to cover. I was literally glued to my couch and my roommate actually thought there was something wrong with me. I don’t usually like to read many books but because of the content and the depth of this book, it kept me hooked. Each story was a part of me and as each page was flipped, I was all ready to read the next one! My favorite part of this novel was the empowerment of this statement on page 51 “The clitoris is pure in purpose. It is the only organ in the body designed purely for pleasure. The clitoris is simply a bundle of nerves: 8,000 nerve fibers, to be precise. That’s a higher concentration of nerve fibers than is found anywhere else in the body, including the fingertips, lips, and tongue, and it is twice…twice…twice the number in the penis. Who needs a handgun when you’ve got a semiautomatic?” I love how she uses these words to compare women’s pleasure to men. Women are such complex and amazing creatures and this book especially taught me how to embrace my femininity.

Another book I couldn’t keep my hands and eyes off was another one of Eve Enslers novels, “I am an Emotional Creature”. This book unlike the vagina monologues, which embraces femininity, shows a corrupted and scared side to being a woman. The poem in this novel that portrayed this fear of being different the most was the poem “DON’T”. The first page of this poem is a list of things that this girl is not allowed to do because of either what her father or mother said what society thinks she should do or how her skewed version of herself won’t allow her to do. However this poem also relieves her “don’ts” and seems as though there is a good future for her and that she has faith in what is to come. “I want to read so I can read the Koran. Read the signs in the street. Know the number of the bus I’m supposed to take when I one day leave this house.”

All throughout this class, we have focused on many different feelings and words to describe the content and emotion of these novels. I believe there have been quite a few repeating topics that seem to sew this whole semester’s worth of reading together. There was pride with “Precious” and with “The Vagina Monologues”. There was fear, rejection and shame with “The Shall”, “I am an Emotional Creature” and even “Fun Home”. There were also many novels that didn’t fit into the categories of the feelings of the other novels such as “In the time of the butterflies”. This was the most complex book I have ever read but it definitely made me appreciate the lives of the Garcia sisters and also appreciate the choppy writing style of the author. There have been so many different ways of interpreting because there have been so many writing styles and this class has truly opened my eyes to new ways of reading and for that I will be forever grateful.

Innocence?

In the beginning, this novel is all about keeping innocence alive; however, I can't help but to wonder if that innocence was really kept. As a child, Allison is in a constant state of shame and doubt. She looks at her life compared to what it could have been. She compares herself to her surroundings, "Pretty girls in my high school had good hair, curled or straightened to fit the fashion, had slender hips in tailored skirts, wore virgin pins on the right side or knew enough not to wear such tacky things at all." (36).

However, as she grows older, she realizes that she doesn't need to make these silly comparisons. She doesn't need to hide her innocence. "What is the story I will not tell? The story I do not tell is the only one that is a lie. It is the story of the life I do not lead, without complication, mystery, courage, or the transfiguration of flesh." (71). She now notices the significance of being herself.

Not only does she learn to accept her for who she is, but she learns to let go of her troubled past, especially with men. All her life, her surroundings have prevented her from being free. She had to keep the innocence. Once she picks up a gun, she not only feels liberated, she also in a sense gets revenge on her step farther by imagining him in front of her. He abused her and she couldn't relieve those built up emotions until she was able to do something she was told never to do, something out of the "ordinary". "Two or three things I know for sure, and one of them is that change when it comes cracks everything open." (48). She was able to lead her own happy life without restrictions and that is truly breaking innocence.

Significance of Pictures

It's one thing to explain your life through words but it's another to portray your past through pictures. I believe that Dorothy Allison, the author of Two or Three Things I Know for Sure captures the essence of this portrayal. Allison’s mother was corrupted at such a young age, she tries to prevent her daughter from the same life she lead. However, throughout the pictures and the stories told in this novel, its evident that her mothers restraints on her only causes further rebellion.

Next to a picture of Allison's aunt dot and her mother, it reads, "The women I loved the most in the world horrified me. I did not want to grow up to be them. I made myself proud of their pride, their determination, their stubbornness, but every night I prayed a mans prayer, lord save me from them do not let me become them"(38). This shows that although that she looks up to these women, she still realizes they are trapped in their own sorrow.

Allison wants to escape the norm of her town; getting pregnant with a poor no good man with out a job and basically being a "baby maker". In class, we analyzed a picture on page 33. How once these women were beautiful and glorious. Only for a mere second. "We were all wide-hipped baby machines. We were all wide-hipped and predestined. Wide-faced meant stupid. Wide hands marked workhorses with dull hair and tired eyes..." Allison realizes that she doesn't want to be just another generation of the women in her family, so she decides to take a different route and go to college.

Mistrust

Define Freedom

Once the mother and the two children return to their home after three years of living in the concentration camps, they seem to have a new outlook on life itself. Not only do they appreciate things that they once took for granite, they also see the world in a new light and have a new definition of what their freedom is versus what the rest of America's freedom is (those who aren't Japanese). Each person matures in a sense by realizing that the world is truly corrupt for so many different reasons, and people just tend to put serious events and realities on the back burner so that they can avoid confrontation of any sort.

After the family's arrival back home, the mother and children are basically worshiping the water coming out of the faucet, yelling insanities that they once couldn't yell out in the concentration camps and they feasted on food that they never thought was "feastable". "We lowered our heads to the faucet and drank.. Our throats were dry from the long ride back and our clothes were covered with dust. Our mother let the water run over her hands and then she turned off the faucet and wiped her hands on the front of her dress.." The mere fact that water was so exciting shows how deprived they were at the camps. They weren't taken care of and were on constant watch of every little move. It became their life and what they were used to.

Although the family was excited to be home and do what they hadn't done in years, they were also doing what they had accommodated to at the camps; such as sleeping in the same room. Even though the children would ask their mother when they would be able to sleep in their own rooms, the schedule they ran on at the camps seemed to stick with them and make them feel comfortable. "Without thinking, we had chosen to sleep, together, in a room, with our mother, dreaming of the day when we could finally sleep alone, in our own rooms.” I also believe they slept together in fear that someone could harm them at any moment, seeing as they were the "enemy" during the war. After the experience at the concentration camps, they realized that they weren't really safe anywhere. They couldn’t' even trust their neighbors who had stolen things from the house. They were free from the camp, but in this case, they weren't free of the harsh realities of the world outside the camp.... so I ask... define freedom.

Secrets

To elaborate a little more on what we had discussed in class on Friday, I'd like to add to the list of lies and secrets that are kept through out this book. The lies told in this novel are very unique because they aren't really lies. They are just well kept secrets. Some "not quite" lies include mother lying to her children that she really does have everything together, when in actuality, she cries her self to sleep at night over the worry of the safety and well being of her and her family. Others are closer to white lies such as the mother telling the children that the dog just wasn't coming with them, rather than her telling them that she had killed him. Not only does the mother lie, but so does the daughter and father. The daughter lies to her little brother about how many horses will run by the train, when in actuality, she doesn't know if there will even be any horses. The father lies through his letters home stating that everything is "O.K."...in jail?

The father writes to the daughter stating all the wonderful things he will buy for her birthday. However, at the end of the note she notices that it has been censored. "At the bottom of the card there was a P.S. and then a line of text that had been blacked out by the censors. She wondered what it was her father had wanted to tell her." Obviously, not everything is "O.K" in jail if letters that her father writes are read through before they're sent. The daughter learns quickly how corrupt the world around her is becoming and soon catches on that she too, in order to stay sane has to lie a little.


As a reader, I can't help to wonder why these characters feel the need to lie to one another. I took the time to analyze each character and why they might lie to them selves and one another. The mother for one, is protecting her children from the harsh realities of the war. The sister, learning from her mother and father tries to protect her brother from the same realities; she probably feels that she grew up too fast and she wants him to keep his innocence. The father lies for different reasons because his situation in jail is a little more skewed than the others situation at home. Everything he does is monitored and looked after. The smallest hickup of a "bad time" there could ruin the chances of him or even his families survival. We all lie a little from time to time, but I can't help to wonder if their lies are getting the best of them.

Compare and Contrast

This book was such a turnaround from reading the book Push. I've decided to take it upon myself to compare the writing styles of these two authors to get a better understanding of the characters themselves. The novel "Push" was an inspiring piece that brings the reader into Precious's (main character) head. Whereas the novel "When the Emperor was Devine", was narrated in second person. You never truly quite got to get into the characters head. However I believe both Sapphire (writer of "Push") and Julia Otsuka (writer of "When the Emperor was Devine", actually meant for their writing styles to create a sense of "mood" for the reader to better understand the situations going on within the story.

                                                                             
In "Push", the language was very real and in your face. Precious swears, speaks broken English and feels free to speak her mind where ever, whenever, with whom ever. However, it is much different for the mother in the first chapter of "When the Emperor was Devine" to even show her emotion, let alone embrace it as Precious does. The author creates a monotone language that it's very hard to get used to at first. Some very emotional things happen in the first chapter that would usually deserve an emotional reaction, but because emotions are rarely portrayed in the beginning of this book, it's hard to tell whether or not to feel bad, happy, or just plain awkward.  On page 11, Otsuka presents the murder of the dog as just another task in the mother’s day. "White Dog's body shuddered twice and his hind legs kicked out into the air, as though he were trying to run. Then he grew still. A trickle of blood seeped out from the corner of his mouth. She untied him from the tree and let out a deep breath. The shovel had been the right choice. Better, she thought, than a hammer." This was done or... described in such a manner that could have been her cleaning the lawn.

Although the mother seemed un phased by her actions, we later find out that she breaks down in bed after having a few glasses of wine. This woman has gone through so many traumatic events during this war that she has become a zombie by day and a human by night. She must stay strong for her children in order to survive. Survival is something that Sapphire tries to portray in her book as well, just through different language. In conclusion, although each author had a different way of conveying the characters story, both novels had the same message; to stay strong.