3/18 Blog Post: Danticat & Shange

Shange

"Whenever she wanted to pray, she let her fiddle talk. Whenever she was angry, here came the fiddle."

This fiction short was not very appealing to me when I first read it -- I enjoyed "Night Women" a lot more. However, reading it through a few more times and discussing it in class I was able to really enjoy this story. I especially enjoyed the above sentence because I perceived it as a clear description of a character trait possessed by the main character Indigo. She was clearly musically inclined and passionate about playing because it is a way for her to express her feelings.

"...this terrible-playing child of mine"

I am noting this statement spoken by Indigo's mother because it points to minimal parental support. The fact that she describes her child as 'terrible-playing' (while speaking to her child, nonetheless!) does not show support for something her daughter truly enjoys. This could point to an extremely controversial topic of parental criticism: is Indigo's mother wrong for speaking the truth about Indigo's fiddle-playing? Or should she have encouraged her to continue?

"Mama, I'm happy with how the fiddles talk... sounding now. I don't want any lessons at all. I just want to play."

This statement by the main character Indigo points again to the character trait of passion. Indigo does not care about the quality of her playing: she just plays what she feels because she truly enjoys doing it. She is carefree and she has an abundance of self-confidence and trust within her playing and capabilities. When her mother tries to convince her not to play her fiddle around the neighborhood because everybody would say mean things about her, Indigo says "No momma, that isn't going to happen." I think that Indigo also expressed the character trait of seeing the good in other people.

Night Women - Danticat

This was a really powerful short story to read. Although it was short, it had a lot of descriptive detail and you learned a lot about the main character through implications and without the author ever saying it out-right.

"An old lover who disappeared with the night shadows a long time ago."

This is the statement made by the narrator and main character when describing the father of her child. This implication is what told me as the reader that she is a single mother, and the way he was described points to her having resentment and sadness toward him.

"Love is one of those lessons that you grow to learn, the way one learns that one shoe is made to fit a certain foot, lest it causes discomfort."

I really like this sentence, but I am confused of what idea the narrator is portraying. Is it the idea that everyone only has one correct love? Or else it is uncomfortable? Or is it just that having the shoe on the wrong foot in general causes discomfort, and that is a lesson that people learn in life?

"One of my suitors gave [earplugs] to him to plug into his ears so he can stay asleep while mommy works." 

"[The day working women] won't have to lie next to the lifeless soul of a man whose scent still lingers in another woman's bed."

"I see his wife's face in the beads of sweat marching down his chin."

These few, short lines told me a lot more about the story. The first quote is really strong to me; the idea of a man giving a little boy earplugs so that he won't have to hear what is going on is disheartening: especially since you are hearing the narrators side of the story and you know that the current situation is not something she enjoys being in.

The second quote I felt had outstanding imagery to it; she continues to say "I want him [her son] to forget that he lives in a place where nothing lasts." This leads me to think she believes love is hopeless.

The very last quote I believe is the most powerful of all. The assimilation of sweat beads marching is such strong language and it shows a sense of guilt, even though she is not the one in infidelity. She feels responsible for the pain that would be felt by the other women if they were to know.

 

Blog Post for 3/11 "The Girl with The Blackened Eye"

"Nobody said a word - didn't want to get involved, I guess." 

     When I read this line my stomach dropped. I don't express my opinions about controversial topics very often because I don't find the conversation worth the grief. That being said, when I read this short story I forgot that it was fiction. I found myself angry: angry at the thought that people would not want to "get involved" when they see a girl with two black eyes because it is "none of their business". Angry at how that situation would be considered "none of their business", but if they were to see two gay men in love it would become everybody's business. The possibility that domestic violence in general is not as enraging of a topic as gay marriage: I find that to be very wrong. 

"Personality is like a flame"

     I really enjoyed this simile. I thin personalities are flames of the soul and they're completely capable of being dimmed, brightened, extinguished, tarnished, etc by other people's actions. There are days when your personality flame can be thriving and you feel confident in personality traits. "I feel aggressive today." "I feel funny today." "I feel creative today." The days that your personality is dragging: "I feel sad today." "I feel quiet today." "I feel lazy today."

"You're special. You're not like the others."

   "The Girl with the Blackened Eye" in it's entirety was a very powerful story to me. It was especially powerful because of the point of view in which it was written. Having the untold-ever-before story written by the victim herself, through her eyes, made it seem very real. It worked efficiently with the broadening of empathy throughout the story. The above quote is what I found to be most perplexing and interesting about it. I really want to understand why the abductor chose to let her survive. Why did he feel obligated to save her, but have no issue killing the others? I remembered a quote from the beginning of the story "....everyone of your privileged class"; when I read this I wondered if he was referring to her family wealth.

     As far as the narrator's character goes, I found it very interesting that she felt loyal to her abductor nearing the end of her captivity. It was strange to think that she would not want to betray his trust, but I have heard about this phenomena in my psychology classes. I think that she wanted to remain loyal to him in order to display the way she would like to be treated - "treat others how you would like to be treated" sort of manner. However, I still wonder why he viewed her as special. Did he see innocence within her? Was it purely her age? The author wrote the story with a use of description that made it possible to envision the scenario in the reader's mind, which continued the already-growing empathy of the reader for the character.

 

Post for March 3rd

I read Fiction Packet #3 last week, and I wrote down a couple of quotes that I really appreciated from the story "The Falling Girl" by Dino Buzzati. This story instantly caught my interest with the title: I was curious to find out what it was about. The story is about a nineteen-year old girl named Marta, and from what I gathered I think it is about moving through life too quickly. This reminds me of myself in many ways: I have to make sure I remember to take it easy and not be in too much of a hurry.

"The city became a sweet abyss with pulsating lights..."

The story maintained my interest even past the beginning. I was surprised that Marta had free fallen from the balcony on the top of the skyscraper, but I soon realized it was for a reason. Her fall from the top was described as "constituted an interesting diversion for the tenants" -- as if somebody falling off of the top of a skyscraper can be belittled to be named a diversion.

"Gentle butterfly, why not stop a minute with us?"

While she was falling from the top of the building, she was approached by strangers along the way enticing her to slow down and enjoy herself. Although she surpassed all offers, eventually she was falling so fast that she didn't even have time to decline.  I found this to be very relative to my daily life.

Also as Marta was falling, it was described that she soon began to notice other young women falling along side her. Personally, I took this as an implication of the tendency for women to compare themselves to other women in a competitive fashion throughout life.

"A decrepit old woman..." "At least down here you can hear the thud when they hit the ground"

I was surprised at the end of the story that Marta had been described as an older woman by someone who had seen her falling: but that's when I realized that the story was about passing through life too quickly and not living for a purpose but living because you have to. I thought this story had a great lesson to learn along with being an overall good read.