California Fruit

California Fruit is about a young girl that moves to California with her mother after her father passes away.  She meets a boy and they sneak out at night to be with each other.  She is young and naive and he awakens her sexually.  He is exotic and exciting to her.  He was only there on vacation though and left without saying goodbye to her.  She was shocked to learn he was from Wisconsin and was disappointed it seemed that he didn't live there.  She was hoping to make connections there and find someplace to fit in, since she was new and lonely.  

I liked this piece because it was simple and yet interesting. I found it from the SmokeLong Quarterly and randomly picked it out of the long list of micro fiction stories.  I can see this story being very relatable to many young people who experience summer love for only a short period of time and before you know it vacations end and no contacts are left open for further developing.  The kind of summer love that is illusive and makes you look back with longing and fond memories.  

When the main character talks about her sunburn peeling in small white flakes like snow this allows the reader to connect the fling as just a summer love situation and with the peeling of her sunburn comes also the change in season and the summer fling is now in the past a long with her burn. 

Mix Tape - The Fiction Remix!

1.  Through the Wire - Kanye West

(This song reminds me of "Native Son" because of its overall meaning in overcoming life's hardest lessons of coming close to death but not giving up on life.  This is also an artist from Chicago)

2.  Fix You - Coldplay

(This song reminds me of "House on Mango Street".  Esperanza feels trapped in her neighborhood and desperately wants a house of her own away from Mango Street.  At the end of the story Esperanza decides that she will write for women all over, but especially for the women on Mango Street.  She will try to fix the oppression of women she sees done by men all over.)

3.  Wreck of the Day - Anna Nalick

(This is a song about being let down by life and love.  It's about trying to not fall to pieces because of the constant effort given but still not being accepted or understanding about yourself through fighting for love. This song reminds me of "Hairstyles of the Damned". 

4.  The Taste of Ink - The Used

("So here I am, alive at last, and I'll savor every moment of this!" It's a sort of anthom for a younger generation finally finding themselves and feeling acceptance and love in someone else.)

5.  Middle of Nowhere - Hot Hot Heat

(This song is about being open to everything and nothing at all.  "To give you something to go on, when I go off back to the middle of nowhere."  It's about being there for someone else when you are feeling lost yourself.)

Five Minutes?

If I had five minutes alone with Bigger Thomas, I probably would talk to him about he felt the first instance he realized himself as an equal to white people. 

According to the story, Bigger goes on to say that when Jan visited him in his cell, he opened up to Bigger and acknowledged his feelings, thus making Bigger for the first time on the same level as a white person. 

I would hope to show Bigger, in the five minutes we had to talk, that I too considered myself an equal to him.  I would also listen to his feelings and let him to the talking about how he has felt over his lifetime. 

I would expect Bigger not to want to open up to me at first.  He might even pretend to be subservient just to hide his emotions and cover up his uncomfortable feelings.  I would be openminded to him and try to help him express and alleviate the shame he feels because of his color.  I would tell him of the great strides our country has made in regards to racism and racial differences.  I would like to tell him about Barack Obama and give him piece of mind that ALL children born today have lots of opportunities at their feet, no matter what culture they come from!

"Harlem" by Langston Hughes

Harlem 
by Langston Hughes 

What happens to a dream deferred?

Does it dry up
like a raisin in the sun?
Or fester like a sore —
And then run?
Does it stink like rotten meat?
Or crust and sugar over —
like a syrupy sweet?

Maybe it just sags
like a heavy load.

Or does it explode?

This poem does resemble Bigger from Richard Wright's "Native Son".  I enjoy reading this book because it makes me realize how awful and oppressed Bigger must have felt growing up in the 1930s in Chicago.  I am white and never had had to dealt with the extent of racism Bigger and many other African Americans have went through in their lives, but I imagine I would act and feel simaliar to how Bigger feels and acts in "Native Son".  He has a lot of pressure on him from his family and he resents the limited resources he has available to him in order to try and help his family.  He is oppressed and goes without.  Being constantly looked down upon can be very damaging to a person, especially a man who is expected to be the main provider for his family.  Times are tough for Bigger as well as every single black person at that time in America.  When people are held down for so long they will rebel and use force to try to fight their oppressors, white America.  If I were in Bigger's position I would feel anger inside, not necessarily to the point he does but then again I don't really know what it's like to be in his shoes. 

Diversity and Reactions

It is kind of hard for me to express exactly if my views have changed since reading these stories for this unit.  In part I believe that I already have learned a lot through my friendships with different races and backgrounds.  One story that did surprise me was Maugham's, "Outstation".  I found that the relationship of diversity which stood out for me the most was the concept of rich and poor.  

Many wealthy people are stereotyped as mean and not respectful of other cultures less endowed then they are, but in this case it was Cooper a lesser refined man in which bore strict prejudices towards the Malayan people in Borneo.  I found this to be very interesting and also a very good twist to a story which one might start out with preconceived expectations about the main character, Mr. Warburton.  

Self-Identification and Classification

From checking out this website, I found it very difficult for me to dicifer what people belonged to which racial category, and because of this I turned out to be off quite a bit with my choices.  I find it degrading to judge people by their color and facial features.  I try to never judge a book by its cover but in many cases its difficult not to because we are very observant of how we carry ourselves and even make the slightest judgements from each other based on our appearances. I believe we are all guilty of this and am offended when I hear white people singled out as being the only group that is racist. Times have changed and I believed we are all to blame for prejudices in our lives. 

I believe that people base certain styles and ways of hygene with each nationality.  America has many stereotypes and at times they can be so insulting if not always.  People are unique and have many ways of expressing themselves these days, who are others to judge their appearance any way of how the person really is on the inside?? Sometimes we can all be unfair in our assumptions...I can only hope through the generations we will continue to change and grow as a country and nation to eliminate these prejudices!

Underground Exposed

"Nothing is as violent as the violence of the mind..." by Boxoffice magazine.  Truly interesting and very true.  We can sometimes not even express our anger and madness because there are no words or actions that would satisfy our thoughts, this is what makes this statement so true and brilliant.  This is why this film, "Notes from Underground" is considered the most violent film of the year.  To hold in all the anger and pent up frustration is likely to drive one mad and lead to a downward spiral for one's one health and eventually ending their life.  Violence of the mind can't be stopped because we cannot stop our human given right to think and feel.  To end our own thoughts and emotions is to end our life, but even to act out a suicide is less violent than to slowly let violence kill us from a psychological manner in internal anger. 

The protagonist is his own antagonist.  He is so spiteful because he is dying from internal violence of the mind besides the diagnosis of liver cancer.  Only he can cure and stop the violence of his mind, but it appears he revels in it.  Some people become so angry that they are dying that they actually let an illness take over all other thoughts in their mind.  They become bitter with resentment and spite and no matter what anyone else may try to do to help them they become consumed with anger.  This is actually making his life and death more painful because he is so spiteful and has such a negative mindset.  To have this raw emotion exposed on film can't help but be emotionally touching, because everyone knows anger to a certain extent and this film pushes our limits to someone who has anger at large seeping through their veins.