My Reflection

This may sound cliché, but the first thing I thought about when asked to reflect upon this year was the great deal of stuff I learned outside of the classroom. Don’t get me wrong, there’s plenty to learn in Tisch Library and calc class, but somehow I think when I look back at college I won’t be thinking about derivatives and integrals. I think the main reason I learned so much here in this one year was because I was able to get away from what I thought was a suffocating home environment and finally be by myself. And even at the end of this year, I’m still just beginning to tap into my true self. So without further ado, here are some things I learned this year:

Life is not all fun all the time. Again, this is something which sounds a little cliché, but it still holds an enormous amount of truth. This year’s swim season was probably the most challenging thing I have had since being here. There were times when I really didn’t think I would make it. But it taught me how gratifying it can be to stand up and face a challenge, and overcome it. What highlighted this for me was actually the couple months after season. This is where I discovered that without work, fun is no longer fun. What is good without bad? While I thought during swim season that afterwards I would never want to swim again, now I learn that these kinds of challenges are what make life so invigorating. Also, I think looking back I can only remember a few things from parties, but I have dozens of memories in the pool working with my teammates that we will never forget.

I also learned how much I actually love and miss my family. Home is much more important to me now than it was a year ago. I think when I was in high school it was easy to get caught up in work and stuff which make you forget how important having a home is. Only by coming to college could I gain this perspective on the value of a family. There is nothing better than having somewhere to go where you will be loved unconditionally, and being “independent” this year was the best way to learn that.

Lit. Analysis paragraph

A Bildungsroman is a coming of age story; a novel that deals with the development and growth of a character and further develops his or her identity. Two novels we read, American Born Chinese by Gene Luen Yang and American Son by Brian Ascalon Roley, both deal with the issue of developing an Asian American identity. In American Born Chinese, the protagonist Jin Wang just wants be accepted in a community where he is the only Chinese American. The novel grapples with many of the stereotypes associated with being Asian American, and Jin eventually comes to deal with those issues in a well adapted manner. In American Son, the narrator Gabe is a quiet and reserved kid who tries to survive in a family of Filipino immigrants; with a brother who has adopted a gangster lifestyle and a mother pressuring him to be good and get good grades. Because he is ashamed of his mother’s Asian identity and he has feelings of defeat from getting beaten up by his brother, he leaves home on a journey that will eventually lead him to deal with his situation in a more violent manner. Though the protagonists of both novels have different ways of dealing with their dilemmas, both novels could be considered Bildungsromans because both protagonists grow and gain newfound meaning and a clearer identity within society.

American Son: a Bildungsroman

When I read the Victorian Web website’s definition for Bildungsroman one thing in particular caught my eye. When I read American Son, I initially thought it was not a coming of age story because at the end Gabe doesn’t take the opportunity that Ika and his Aunt Jessica tried to provide him with Westward. But then I saw that part of the definition for a Bildungsroman included that “the spirit and values of the social order become manifest in the protagonist, who is then accommodated into society. The novel ends with an assessment by the protagonist of himself and his new place in that society.” The reason I think this is applicable to American Son is because at the beginning of the story Gabe is quiet and tends to avoid conflict. Gabe is initially very reserved tends to avoid conflicts with people, and he is obviously very conflicted over his identity in America. But by the end of the novel he helps Tomas to beat up Ben Feinstein as payback for Ben’s mom chewing Ika out. I think this is because that by the end of the novel he wants to stand up for his mother, he no longer wants to keep getting stepped on because he is a Filipino immigrant, and this is his way of doing it.

I think another important reason you could consider this novel a Bildungsroman is because the narrator, Gabe, is forced to journey away from his home and begin the growth process. Part of the definition of a Bildungsroman is that the hero must have “some form of loss or discontent must jar them at an early stage away from the home or family setting.” The reason Gabe leaves his home is because he is embarrassed of his mother and upset with his brother. He runs away to California because he cannot deal with the situation, and he is violently jarred back to reality with what happens in Oregon. He begins to realize there, I think, that he shouldn’t call his mother the maid and that he should stick up for who he is and where he comes from. This is shown in the end of the story when he first stands up for his mother when she is buying makeup and then later when he gets the “yoga mom” back.

Literary Analysis Paper Topics

1. Compare the talk stories of Maxine Hong Kingston’s work Woman Warrior to a more straightforward novel.

2. Compare the literary techniques Gene Yang uses in his graphic novel, which is more flexible because of its graphic nature, to another novel which must describe everything, such as The Oracles or Woman Warrior.

3. What is the author’s goal in using many different related stories in American Born Chinese as opposed to We Are All Suspects Now?

4. Compare the literary techniques Maxine Hong Kingston uses to describe her childhood versus those Pati Poblete uses.

5. Compare the symbols used in American Born Chinese to those used in Woman Warrior.

American Born Chinese Analysis

In class we talked about how it is important for the author to keep the story on track by using different writing techniques. Since the story is titled “American Born Chinese”, the author tell us a story mixed with different cultural perspectives. He playfully tells us about part of his Chinese heritage by starting the book off with a story about a mythological monkey god, who is personified as a king, but is still treated as a monkey. The tale serves to establish the beginnings of the novel, and leaves the reader wondering how it could tie into the next part. Then when the story turns to the narrator’s life, the author uses the dialogue on pages 30 and 31 to illustrate the general misconceptions of Chinese people among Americans. The author shows us characters that are simply ignorant of the narrator’s true personality, and he shows this through their dialogue: the teacher guesses incorrectly at his name, then assumes he has moved to this particular school district from China, then one of the students thinks that the narrator eats dogs. The author places emphasis on the incorrect assumptions by bolding them in the text. As we can see from the beginnings of the novel, life in America will not be easy for the narrator.

My Turn Paragraph

So it comes as no surprise that I might want to escape a town where 9 out of 10 kids wear polo shirts to school and attending the debutante ball in the winter is normal. But now that I am at Tufts, a university that prides itself on its diversity, I ask myself how that has really come into play here. For example, although the university has many different houses for certain ethnicities, such as the French House, the Latino Culture House, the German Language House, and even an International Culture House, I have never set foot in one of them. Come to think of it, I don’t even know where they are located. It appears that the old adage has some truth to it: you can bring a horse to water, but you can’t make him drink.

Woman Warrior Response

One discussion question that I thought was Mae’s. She points out that even though we no longer actually practice binding women’s feet, women are still ‘bound’ by society. Throughout the novel, Kingston wonders about how women are supposed to fit in to society. While she doesn’t want to accept just being a housewife and mother, she cannot possibly gain acceptance by going out and saving all of China like Fa Mu Lan. When she tells the story of Fa Mu Lan, it seems to me like she wants to be able to do both: she has a husband and child, but at the same time is fighting a war. It seems that women today have the same problem: they are expected to fulfill their role as a mother but at the same time they want to be successful and independent. I think the stereotype we have for women to fulfill their motherly role holds them back in many ways, and is therefore similar to the foot binding.

I think we see the symbolic foot binding in many ways today. For example, in order for many women to succeed in the workplace they must adopt the look of a businessman, wearing the female equivalent of the business suit, because they must take the feminine element out of the workplace. Or, like Mae said, women are expected to wear high heels to be considered attractive, but this is also very similar to the idea of foot binding. But I think Kingston makes a very good point in the end of the second chapter that she can transcend these stereotypes by using her words. By writing she confronts the issue.

"No name" person

When I was 10, my grandfather gave me a Japanese flag from World War 2. He told me about how he got drafted, which wasn’t uncommon for 19 year old farmers who weren’t attending school (he dropped out after the first semester of college). He was stationed in the Philippines, where a lot of the combat between the Japanese and Americans occurred. He told me it was a souvenir of his time spent fighting in the great world war.

To this day I have no idea of how he came across the flag. He has since passed, and my questioning other family members has turned up nothing. It is ironic that now that I am curious as to what happened, I cannot know, whereas when he told me I would be too young to understand.

My grandmother told me it was probably just an item confiscated by the Allies after their victory in 1945. But who knows? Maybe he found it and took it as loot after raiding a Japanese naval base. Or perhaps the flag serves as a memory of a fallen comrade. My guess is he probably found it and brought it back to show his grandchildren one day and tell them how he was part of the Second World War. I cannot imagine my grandfather taking the flag unless he found it or it was given to him, but maybe this is only because the only way I knew him was as a quiet old man.

We Are All Suspects Now: Personal Story

I have to admit, before I read this book, had someone told me one of the stories in it I probably would have omitted it as an exception. Partly because I wrongly believed that racism/discrimination was not as big of a problem in America as it is, and partly because a lot of these stories sound horrible and are hard for me to imagine. Also, I have been fortunate enough to live a life that has been pretty much free from exposure to racism, at least overt racism. I recognize the fact that racism and discrimination exist today, but I haven’t ever had a problem with it in my past.

I think the main reason for this is because I am male and come from a very white and very affluent community. I’m talking like so white that students were moved to my high school from the inner city projects not just to give them opportunity, but also just to diversify the school. And even then, it wasn’t like these students came to the school and hung out with everyone, and I don’t blame them, since they were the only black students at my school and they constituted about 2 percent of the student body. Even though they attended the school, I often went about my day without seeing any of them, barring seeing them eating together in the cafeteria. While I think I’ve been very privileged to grow up in a community such as this one, I also think it’s bad to grow up in this kind of “bubble,” where you can go about your life without ever stepping outside your comfort zone.

So I was very glad to come to Tufts, because it allowed me to get out of the bubble that was my hometown. But even at Tufts, a university that prides itself on diversity, I think people are still more prone to hang out with people the same race and develop cliques. It’s like the black students at my high school sitting together in the cafeteria: it may not because one group has something against another, but because it’s just more comfortable that way. Maybe it’s time we stepped out of our comfort zone.

Christmas carol Response

I think my reaction to the Christmas Carol published in the Source recently was similar to most of the Tufts community: How did something like that end up on our school newspaper? I agree with Brian Kelley, the founder of the source: it’s important that there be a conservative viewpoint on campus to encourage a healthy debate among students, but the Primary Source here has lost any notion of professional credibility. What shocked me most was the line “no matter what your grades are F's, D's or G's give them privileged status.” While the author of the poem may have intended to poke fun at affirmative action, he failed to actually consider the academic integrity of the black students admitted. Tufts sets a very high academic standard and I’m fairly certain that no one, not even a well off white kid, would be admitted with a D average. By making a blanket statement such as this one, the Source is only furthering racial ignorance on campus and fanning the flames of prejudice. Even worse, what could have been an enlightened debate among students over a heated issue is now only going to be recognized by its lowest common denominator. Also, now that the Source has published something like this, how is it going to redeem itself in the eyes of Tufts students as a valid conservative opinion on campus? By losing this conservative viewpoint in our discussions, we have an overall less complete discussion of current affairs.

Reader's Guide Ideas

My understanding is that we are making a collaborative encyclopedia entry for Wikipedia, the online encyclopedia that people create. If this is the reader’s guide that has been accessed 1.5 million times in two years, then I am astounded, and see no reason why we can’t create one with millions more viewers. This reader’s guide includes a plotline, list of characters, “influences” – a section which I don’t quite understand – and awards. We can expand on this for our book, but we also must be mindful that everyone reads this, and therefore abide by the five pillars of Wikipedia, especially the one about not including our point of view, which will be hard because the debate over this topic is so heated. Here’s what I think should be included right off the bat (this is assuming an ideal article with no time constraints), and I’m open to suggestions:

-Instead of a plotline, we should include a timeline of US Immigration and anti-terror policy, especially things like the Patriot Act.

-Because there is no main plotline throughout the book, it would probably make sense to include each individual’s story in subsections of a description of the book itself.

-We could include facts such as the amount of immigrants allowed into the United States each year, the number of people deported, etc.

-We could include an excerpt from Tram Nguyen’s upcoming talk here, but we must be careful to remain objective.

This is all I have so far.

Response to the article by Peggy McIntosh, "White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Napsack"

I think the article by McIntosh pointed out a lot of things that I don’t think about very often. She’s right when she says there is such a thing as unearned privilege, and I have heard/thought about that before, but what I haven’t thought about is the extent to which I benefit from my skin color, gender, and the society I was born in. Being a white male from an affluent community it would appear I’ve pretty much hit the trifecta for unearned privileges. I’ve had everything from simply getting credit for my achievements without considering my skin color to having an outstanding community to live in where I can get healthcare and an education among other things. Therefore, I would be the first to concede that there are a lot of groups which receive a lot of unearned privileges, some good and some bad. So I recognize the fact that I am one of the extremely benefited, but just to play the devil’s advocate my question for McIntosh is: where do you draw the line between what represents society and what is an undeserved privilege? I realize that this only applies to a few privileges on her list, but take for example #20, “I can easily buy posters, postcards, picture books, greeting cards, dolls, toys, and children's magazines featuring people of my race.” Might this be because our society from the start has been predominantly white and Christian? Or another one, #9, says “I can go into a music shop and count on finding the music of my race represented, into a supermarket and find the staple foods that fit with my cultural traditions, into a hairdresser's shop and find someone who can deal with my hair.” Of course you will find that all these things are available for your race because that’s the main portion of who’s coming in to buy them! I admit that there is an unfair representation of whites in the media, merchandise, etc., but the goal of a company is to profit, and this is their best bet to do that. While the problem should be solved and others should definitely be given a larger slice of the pie, a company will always do whatever it needs to produce a return for its investors.

Image Reaction

The image I chose was of Jackie Chan in Rush Hour 2. It is a comedy, and the image is funny because Jackie Chan and Chris Tucker are standing in a fighting pose, but wearing bathrobes. This image, taken in context, is amusing because it makes fun of the whole idea of tough, serious fighting. It is very typical for Asian men on film to be seen as masters of hand to hand combat, and this film is no exception: Jackie Chan, the Asian police detective, is of course shown as a master of the fighting arts, while Chris Tucker is his goofy American companion who tags along, stumbling upon every find in his investigation. Often Jackie Chan manages to fight off all of the “bad guys” single-handedly while his counterpart is off somewhere else. But I don’t think that this film portrays either side negatively, instead it helps to create comedy as the pair has a crazy adventure together in Hong Kong. It may even show Asian Americans in a positive light because when paired with Chris Tucker, who is shown as one who is ignorantly jumping into conflict, Jackie Chan can be seen as someone who sizes up the situation accurately. Or it may offend Asian Americans because in the image Jackie Chan looks afraid while Chris Tucker appears battle ready. But I think Jackie’s got the right idea, since in the film a bunch of intruders have just made their way into the room and it’s time to leave.

The picture for this reaction can be found at http://movies.ign.com/articles/301/301986p1.html

Race Article Reaction

At first I was reluctant to approach the article about race because I always hear so much about dealing with race. I think it’s weird: although I hear a lot about dealing with race issues properly, I hardly ever witness racism. Don’t get me wrong, I’d be the first to acknowledge that there is a problem with racism in our society. But I think it’s because I grew up in an affluent white community that I never really witnessed it firsthand. I can see what Tatum meant about how we are never really forced to confront the issue if there is no catalyst to make us. Back home, when I hang out with my friends, it’s not like we choose to not hang out with people of color; it’s just that there are hardly any. Therefore, I feel as if I’m at the beginning stage of race identification because I’ve never been confronted with the problem. Maybe now that I am in college hopefully it will be easier to learn about these issues. I kind of think it’s ironic that I came from the community I did to Tufts, a university which makes a point of celebrating diversity.

I also feel like taking a class that deals with race issues might be a good idea. There are certain things that I feel guilty about, like a lot of people listed in the article, that I would like to talk about. I don’t know if I feel comfortable discussing them here, because we don’t have the set of ground rules in place that the class does. But I feel like there’s so much before this that has gone unnoticed by me because it’s just how I grew up. For example, the “zaps” that she talks about, or jokes meant to ignore the issues or lessen the intensity of the situation, I feel like I’ve seen/heard a lot of those and laughed along with everybody else. I feel like I’ve been taught that it’s okay to laugh about it and somehow this helps the situation, but really it just ignores the problem. Clearly there are a lot of issues that I need to deal with one way or another