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.