Reading and Writing about The Shawl

How would you describe the tone and feeling of the first story "The Shawl"? How is it different from the later story "Rosa"? Why did Ozick create this difference?



Why do you think that Ozick chose to include such a small segment of story representing the Holocaust experience compared to a much longer, drawn out version of Rosa's life in Florida? How does the form here mirror the content?



What gaps are there in the story, in Rosa's memory, in the differing versions of stories told by different characters? Why is this important to the book? Also, think about some of the contradictions in this book, things that just don't make sense to you as a reader? What makes sense to Rosa? Again, why are these contradictions important?



Is Rosa crazy? Why does she smash up her successful store and relegate herself to a life of squalor in Florida? What does Ozick want readers to learn or to think about from Rosa's story? Is this a story of survival and triumph or is this a story of oppression?



What is the significance of Dr. Tree and his study? Why does Rosa reject his version of reality? What does she object to? Can you make any connections between her attitude toward Tree and her attitude toward Stella?



Why does Rosa refuse to admit that Magda is dead? Explore the many possibilities here.



What role does Mr. Persky play in the story and in Rosa's life? Is the ending a positive, hopeful, ending? Is Rosa transformed in some way by her interaction with Persky; does she change or have any realizations? What do you imagine happens after the book ends?



What do you think Ozick's intentions are with this book? What does she want us to get out of it?



This is another story about motherhood. Reflect on the way motherhood affects a woman's identity. How is Rosa's survival mitigated by the loss of her daughter/motherhood?


How does this book connect to others we have read about surviving a traumatic experience, especially When the Emperor was Divine and Push?

Divine Emperors

Here are some possible writing topics for When the Emperor was Divine:

1. Some people have labeled Otsuka's style as minimalist because of what one Eng 217 student on Wednesday described as the "monotone" feel of the narration. Certainly, the emotional impact of the writing seems muted or concealed under a surface layer, especially after reading Push which had an opposite style/feel. Do you agree that Otsuka's style is minimalist? What is the effect of her style and why do you think the author employs this particular style? How does it relate to the novel's content, the characters, etc.?

2. Beneath a monotone surface of writing lurk powerful emotions: shame, fear, resentment, anger, etc. Where do we see these emotions erupt and what does that show about the bigger picture of the characters' lives and feelings?

3. There are a lot of interactions between humans and animals (ex. White Dog, the bird, the horses, the turtle). What is the significance of these interactions? What is the author suggesting about humanity?

4. Why do you think the main characters are unnamed in the book? How does that detail add to the author's project? Compare the lack of names to people and places that are named in the book and see what is emphasized in this comparison.

5. Comment on the silences or the things left unsaid in the novel. What do the gaps reveal about what is being hidden or ignored and why?

6. Color is important in real and symbolic ways throughout the writing. Look at the various uses of color and think about what their importance is. What do they illuminate? Also, compare the use of whiteness and colors to the idea of American vs. Japanese identity.

7. Track the ways that the characters change through the experience of being in the internment camps. How are the family members different people when they come back? Have they traded roles in some cases? How do you think they will/can go on with their lives, go back to "normal"? What is the effect of the camps on the identity of the characters? Say where you see identity being shaped, altered, crushed, etc.

8. Explore further the themes of lying, truth, and fantasy that we began to cover in class discussion. How does the end of the book speak to these topics?

9. Relate this novel to the idea of the American Dream and the stories we tell about our nation in American history.

10. Why do you think the author seeks to break the silence surrounding this historical event by telling this story? (Her mother and grandmother lived in an internment camp but the author heard/knew little of their personal experiences.) How might this novel also relate to the historical events of 9/11 (considering the novel was published in 2003)?

Push

Discussion Questions or Push

How does the voice of Precious change the way we see her? Can it change the way others in her community see her or refuse to see her?
What roles do language and emotion play in the book?
At what points do we see change in Precious? At what point do we see Precious owning her identity and her destiny rather than accepting what others have forced on her? What influences her change?

As Precious learns about the world around her, how do her views on race and sexuality change? Do her friendships help her lose her biases and see beyond stereotypes? What factors contribute to the way Precious sees the world in the beginning of the book, and what factors make her reconsider?

What problems does Sapphire want us to be aware of? What societal institutions does the novel critique? What solutions do you think she offers?

What is the role of Precious' community in forming her individual self?

What is the role of literacy in identity formation? What is the role of writing and expression in Precious' story? Why are these crucial elements?

What does Precious learn about her identity as a parent? Do you think she comes to forgive her own parents? Why or why not? What does Sapphire suggest about motherhood and the role it plays in identity formation?

What is this book suggesting about themes like power, abuse, and survival?

What do you think of the ending of the book? Is it hopeful? What do you think happens to Precious and her son?

Is this an American Dream story or the opposite? Is it a story of hope or a story of despair? Or is it not that simple - and why?

What is the purpose of the Life Stories at the end? Why does Sapphire end with them and what do they add to the novel?

Writing about Fun Home

Fun Home is a autobiographical graphic novel, and it is also a coming-of-age story. Accordingly, there are a lot of themes in this work that echo other books we have read this semester: themes of self-expression, developing an identity, personal beliefs vs. societal expectations, sexual exploration, desire, guilt, control, and insecurity. You can write about Bechdel's talk on any of these themes and what she adds to the conversation.

One of the things that makes this work very different is the pictures. Bechdel is an artist, and she is doing a lot of interesting things with the images she presents, in writing as well as pictures. Notice some of her fine details, how she plays with light and shadow, what is in focus and what is sidelined in various pages, what is repeated, changed, etc.

Like many other writers, Bechdel seems to suggest that writing is an outlet for survival as well as expression. Like Ensler, she also uses a dark humor as a coping mechanism. Explore this in her tone and in her contradictions.

Like Nye, Bechdel looks to her father in order to understand herself. Throughout Fun Home, she reads her father's sexual identity as a mirror of her own (lots of images of mirrors throughout) just as Nye read her father's cultural identity as a mirror of her own. What might this suggest about the way that children use family as a springboard for their own self-expression and identity? How do these authors both embrace and reject their families? How so they learn from their experiences? Specifically, how does Bechdel write a different ending for herself than her father's and why is that so important?

Reading Buterflies

photo © 2009 Hafiz Issadeen | more info (via: Wylio)



Remember to keep your character charts/event timelines.

Here are some reading and writing questions that you can blog about: (warning: #7 contains a spolier)


1) Why does Alvarez feel compelled to tell this story, to bring this story to American
readers? What does she want us to gain from knowing this history, from knowing
these women? Is this an American story? How is this also Alvarez’s story? Where
is her voice here?

2) By the end of the novel, how have the characters of Minerva, Mate, and Patria
changed? Have they changed the revolution or has the revolution changed them?
Is there a happy ending to this story at all?

3) In the epilogue, Dede’s perspective is presented from a first person point of view,
unlike her previous chapters which were in third person. Why? Has she finally
found her “I”? What has she learned about herself by this time? Who is she and
how has her view of herself changed? Why does Alvarez dedicate the novel to
Dede?

4) Why does Trujillo kill the sisters even though they’re no longer directly involved
in the revolution? Were the women victims, martyrs, heroes, or something else?
What about the men? Why doesn’t he kill them? What does he do instead?

5) By the end of the novel, do you get used to Alvarez’s style? Why did she choose
this style? Does it work? Is she able to get you to finish reading the book even
though you know the ending? What does she focus on instead and why?

6) Alvarez says that she wants to take us beyond the legend in creating her
characters? Does she do this? How? Why?

7) What do you think she is trying to accomplish with this book? What is she saying
about truth, justice, storytelling, the search for self, the roles of women, and other
themes touched on in the book?

Bookstore Alert!!

The bookstore sends any unbought books back about halfway through the semester. They sent an email saying that it was almost that time. So, if you haven't bought the rest of the books needed for this class, and were planning to buy them at the bookstore, wither buy them now or go there and ask them to hold them for you. If not, they will send them all back and you will need to find them elsewhere.

photo © 2006 Ian Wilson | more info (via: Wylio)

Blogging Ideas for I Am An Emotional Creature

1. Explore the contradictions in the text. What do they reveal about the lives of girls today?

2. Explore the connections between 2 pieces in the text (for example: Dear Rihanna and Bad Boys or Asking the Question and It's Not A Baby... or Guide to Surviving Sex Slavery and 35 Minutes). How do they speak to one another?

3. What progression do you see taking place over the 3 sections? I find the last section the most powerful, and it makes me reflect back on the first two a bit differently. Think about how the 3 make sense to you or work together to build some larger project.

4. Look up some of the women or groups mentioned in Section 3 and explore the context a bit more. How does that enrich your understanding of the text itself?

5. Consider the epilogue. What else would you add to this poem? What else do girls need to know or be reminded of?

6. The word "feminism" isn't used in the book, but how might Ensler be defining or repackaging feminism from a 21st century girls' perspective.

7. Ensler draws distinctions between "girls" and "boys" as well as between "girls" and "adults/women." Why? What does that show?

8. As I read this book, I think a lot about "nature vs nurture." In some places it seems like Ensler essentializes, even stereotypes, girls (for example, she implies that all girls are emotional). Other places, I see her questioning/challenging those assumptions or saying something else entirely. What can you add to this conversation? Why are these questions important to think about in regard to girls in general and Ensler's project specifically?

9. What does the game "Would You Rather?" show abut girls, especially the one girl who wants to play it?

10. Thinking about one of the facts along with a few other pieces, what do girls need in High School besides "Sex Ed" in order to not get pregnant, etc.?