I WAS THERE IN THE ROOM

“I Was There In the Room” is a story that is wholly connected to the vaginas. It’s a story of a life, which is given by the God from not really comfortable saying word the vagina. Ensler wrote this story about a mother who gives birth to a child. Ensler observed the whole process that how a baby takes birth and what happens to the vagina in this process. She talks about that how vagina changes its colors, till the baby comes out. Vaginas are bad for torture, but they are the one who gives human a life. This is probably one of reason that Ensler talked about vagina and why she calls them a precise thing, which is only a pure thing for real pleasure. Without vaginas there wouldn’t have been any human on earth. It a God’s biggest gift to females. For females, it’s very proud thing that they got the opportunity to give birth to a child not men. In the story, Ensler compares vagina with heart. She talks about just like heart is capable of sacrificing, so is vagina. If something happens to the heart it’s curable, just like that vaginas can be repaired also. According to Ensler, “it can ache for us and stretch for us, die for us and bleed and bleed us into this difficult, wondrous world. So can the vagina”. Just like heart does everything for us to survive in this world, vagina does the same thing. It takes a lot of bear and tears while giving a birth. It’s the only thing that fulfills human’s physical needs. So, I think this is enough to make vagina saying a comfortable world. It shouldn’t be a shame to talk about. Women should be proud of themselves that they have this precise thing. More over, I would say that without vagina a woman is not a woman and there wouldn’t be any world left there.

The Vagina Monolouge( Q. # 3)

          I think that Ensler does achieve the goal of celebrating vaginas and raising the awareness of violence against women equally. After reading the monologues and the facts of violence, it was very shocking that how women are getting torched in this world everyday. These stories clearly tell us that how the organizations like V-Day are doing everything to protect helpless women. This monologue has become very famous. I think being a famous monologue and gathering so much money from it tells us that Ensler have achieved her purpose of writing this monologue.  Her first purpose of celebrating vagina, I think is very successful. I think these stories have everything that women need to know about vaginas. It’s a book of awareness. It educates women. These stories tell women that how they should be aware of their vaginas; give them more importance in their lives, and how they should be taken care of.  It has all the happy and sad facts of vaginas. Ensler tell us what makes it angry and what make it feel good. A happy vagina would want, “sex, go deeper, hungry for depth, kindness, change, freedom, etc.” Ensler wrote. On the other hand violence against women is the biggest issue today. I think Ensler has done a great job by writing this monologue as a drama. It has earned a lot of money and changed women’s lives. So, I think she does achieve both of these goals equally by getting women aware of the dirty society and their body parts. I don’t think that they contradict each other, because vagina and raising awareness are kind of same thing. I mean Ensler is trying to get women educated about vaginas and the awareness falls somewhere in there. Because it’s the vagina, which is taken advantage of. So, I think they don’t. I think the effect of reading all the monologues as one large peace is probably not bad, but at the same time it is. If you read all of them at same time, it kind of ties you together. You can batter understand that where the author is going. It can also be bad for the emotional reader, because there are some very sorrowful stories. They can put pressure on reader’s mind. Reading it all together can let the reader come to a certain point that what is really the purpose of this book. It can let the reader make decision that what they should do to help stop the violence. For me it was kind of a pressure. Because some of the stories are very emotional and I just want to get over with them. I just was not able to read the pain of these women, who suffered a lot. I just can’t think of it that how they wore this pain. So, I think reading them as a large peace has different effect on readers. It depends on how you take the situation.

The Vagina Monologues (second response)

The Vagina Monologue is probably the biggest successful drama in the theaters these days. It was first performed by Eve Ensler in 1996. As it became famous, it was performed by the stars. It has even been performed at the world famous Apollo Theater. This drama gets performed to raise money to help protect women against violence. V-Day is the organization, which is organized to protect women from rape, incest, mutilation, etc. by raising money from the help of The Vagina Monologue. I think V-Day has done a great job collecting money for helpless women’s. After reading the V-Voices from the Worldwide Network, I found out that these people have very deep thoughts about the violence against women and according to them V-Day organization is probably the best way to achieve the goal of world without violence. They are trying very hard do this from their hearts by spreading the message of stopping violence against women. Some people even thanked V-Day for changing their lives and by making them part of V-Day to help protect women. Some people even said that V-Day have given them so much strength, confidence, self respect, and made them able to reach their goals to their fullest potentials. After reading these thoughts, I think it’s definitely very important to raise awareness, money, and our voices against these violence’s. Even if we can’t do this, we should always be strong enough to protect ourselves in this world without any help.

 By reading this book, I got a lot out of it. Sure it was very uncomfortable book for me to read, but I think is a great book. It’s a book of awareness and self-knowing. I think that watching these stories being performed is more fun than just reading them. As I read through these stories, some of them were very shocking for me. For instance, Ensler wrote about how the vaginas feel like, smell like, and her husband likes to shave it and look it. I mean I never really thought that someone would really talk about it that openly. I think Ensler is being very straight forward and open about these things. At the same time, I think her purpose was to write all this in the book was to let women know that they shouldn’t hate their body parts. We are beautiful as we are and there is nothing wrong to talk about our body part openly. Overall, it was a good book to read and a unique way to learn about women body parts and the V-Day organization. In the future, I would definitely want to see stories being performed and help them raising some money.

THE VAGINA MONOLOGUES

As I started reading it, it turned out to be something different then I thought. Before reading it, I heard that it’s a drama. It’s designed to be act on a stage. It’s true, it’s a fine drama. But, I didn’t know that it’s all about Vaginas, which have all different names like: pussycat, pooki, poopi, peepe, monkey box, etc. the list goes on and on. It was little uncomfortable for me to read this book, but I read. It’s probably more uncomfortable for men to read. I think Eve Ensler wrote this book to get women aware of their body parts or I would say the most precious part (vagina). This book is also a one big step against protecting women, which would probably make men ashamed of raping women.  Ensler interviewed over 200 women of all ages asking them what they think about their vaginas. She talked about all different age stages of women lives or I would say vagina. She talks about in what age what happens. I think she wants women to know that what precise thing they have and it should be a big topic to talk publically without any shame. She wants women to become more open, fearless, and be able to protect their selves without others help.

            I think she wants vaginas to be publicly performed, because she wants women to be aware of their body parts. She wants women to know what they have and what they are. I think there are a lot of women who don’t like to talk about their body parts or the things that make them embarrassed talking about. Ensler want these women to get rid of this fear and live a new fearless life. Through the stories, she wants the readers to respect women’ bodies not disrespect them by raping or harassing them by commenting on their body parts.

She wants vaginas to be physically embodied, because she thinks they are the most important part of women’s body. In the text she asked the interviewers that what would they call their vaginas and how would they dress them. In the stories she tells us about their physical characters and how she looks at it. They are women’s self respect. As long as they are safe, a woman has higher respect in people’s eyes, but once it’s looted by someone, the woman is disgraced. She wants women to give them name and dress them, and be aware of how they look. She wants to draw them. She wants women to know who they are and what their importance in their life. Without them a woman is not a woman. She wants them to be physically embodied, so that women shouldn’t be ashamed of them, it’s what that’s given by the God. It tells you about the thoughts you have about your body and how you look at it.

I think the affect of the way we see or think of vaginas is for everyone at different age is different. It depends on how women look at it, what they call them, how they dress them, or how they treat them. According to Ensler there were some old ladies who didn’t really pay attention to their vagina or looked at them. These women who never really pay attention to their vaginas, they are probably not comfortable talking about them or believe in embodying their vaginas physically. The women who know the importance of their vaginas, they probably think more deeply about them and know the value of what they have. Every woman has same body parts and most of the women go though the same consequences in life. So being a woman we should be aware of our important parts of body.

Between the pool and the Gardenias

Between the pool and the gardenias is a sorrowful story of a woman and the dead child. It’s story of a woman who had a miscarriage and now she desperately looking for a baby. She is hoping that someday she’ll have a child. One day when she was walking on the street, she found a baby girl, who looked like a little expensive doll. She was afraid to touch her, because she thought that it’s a trap from my enemies. Finally, she picked her up into her arms. The child was wearing a dress with the letters R O S E on it. So, she started calling her Rose. The woman is a maid at the house in Petion-Vile. She took Rose with her to the house. She was talking to Rose, but Rose didn’t have any expression on her face. In so little time Rose was very close to her. She started telling Rose about her life, all the things that gave her pain and happiness. She kept talking to her for three day and realized that Rose is not making any reaction. Rose started to smell like intestines. She started giving her bath three or four times a day and sprayed Madame’s perfume on her. Finally she realizes that Rose is dead. She wanted to bring Rose back to the same street where she found her, but then she thought that she have taken on her soul as her personal responsibility. She left her behind the house in a sack. Rose’s skin was turning dry, ashy, and started attracting flies. She gave Rose a final bath and wore her yellow dress. She dug a hole to bury her. When she was about to put Rose in the hole, someone stopped her. It was the Dominican (pool cleaner), who spent one night with her. He accused her for killing the child for her evil purposes. He kept a hold on her, so she won’t run away. She looked down at Rose and thought of all the things that a mother can imagine about her child. Over Rose’s corpse, she thought of a nice picture of Rose, me and him. Between the pool and the gardenias, waiting for the police to come. I think it was a miserable story of this woman, who always wanted someone to love her, and a child who she can love. But, her destiny was that bad that everyone deceived her. She never got a husband or her own child. I think it was very heart touching story that after reading it makes you very emotional and pray for these types of women.

Caroline's Wedding

Caroline’s Wedding is a story about two sisters, mother and their dead father. The narrator of the story is Gracina Azile, Caroline’s older sister. She has got her American citizenship certificate and waiting for her American passport to come. Her father Carl Romelus Azile died of cancer. In America, he married another woman to bring his family to America and get them legal papers.  Grancina’s mother Hermine Francoise Azile is from Ville Rose, Haiti. She is a kind of woman who believes in cultural myths about things and little old fashioned. Grancina’s younger sister Caroline Azile is in love with American man named Eric, her Bahamian fiancé. Caroline was born without her left forearm.  When her mother was arrested in the sweatshop immigration raid, a prison doctor gave her a drug shot to keep her calm. That shot caused Caroline condition. Her mother always wanted Caroline to marry a Haitian man, but she loved an American man. Her mother didn’t like Eric that much. She thought that he doesn’t love her daughter. He is just trying to be a noble man by marring her. So, her mother would make Caroline bone soup everyday to detach Caroline from Eric. It was her belief that soup can be a miracle to do that. Their mother believes in arrange marriages, because that’s how she got married. Grancina and her mother usually go to a mass in New York, where the priest would recite the names of 129 Haitian Refugees drown at the sea. He also talked about a woman who gave birth to stillborn child and drown herself in the sea. Her mother told Grancina that her father used to write letter to her in Haiti from New York. When their father died, their mother asked them to wear red panties under black clothes, so that her husband won’t come back to them. But the girls never believed in it, they always wore black panties, because for them their father was welcome to come to them. So, that means their father meant a lot for them. And probably that’s the reason they used to see their father in their dreams, and the girls always wanted to share their feeling with their father. Even when Caroline was about to get married, she wanted her father to prove the man that she loves in her dream. Caroline believed in a simple marriage. So, her wedding was held in a conference room. Judge Perez married them. After wedding they had lunch at Le Bistro, took picture at Bontanic Garden, and then Caroline was gone with Eric. Her mother was very upset. They probably haven’t had a normal mother and daughter talk, but they were so close to each other. After Caroline left, she sent her mother flower with lots of love. Grancina’a mother was very emotional that day. So, she showed Grancina her proposal letter and talked about her wedding. When Grancina got up the next day she got her American passport and went to her father’s grave in Rosedate Queen, and tell her father about the wedding and also that she has become an American Citizen. When she came back home, she talked to Caroline on the phone and helped her mother making the soup. So, this was the story of Caroline’s Wedding. I think it is have a lot connection with the other stories. This story’s characters are like they were the same characters in the other stories. For example, writing letters. I think story is basically talking about a mother, who loves her country, culture, and her cultural believes. It’s like any other typical mother who has a lot of dreams about her children. Just like a good mother, who always have concerns about her children’s future. I think it was a good story to read and learn about Haitian mother’s cultural believes and her daughters response to it.

Night Women

“Night Women” is another heart touching story written by Edwidge Danticat. I think this is an interesting story about this woman, who is a prostitute and a mother of her little son. The narrator of the story doesn’t have a name. This prostitute woman is the telling the reader that there are two types of women: night women (prostitutes) and day women (the one who take of the family and runs a household in a typical sense). She is the night woman, who practices her profession next to her young sleeping son’s bed. Because they are poor, they only have one room, which is split into two with a curtain. She worries that her son will find out about her truth one day, because she sees him becoming older and more sexually aware. She lies to him to keep him innocent and hides what she is really doing. She is constantly fighting the truth everyday to protect her son from her reality. She does it for her son, because of the deep love she has for him. At night, when she dresses up and make herself look prettier, her son asks her that why she is doing this. So, she tells that she’s waiting for an angel to come, who will bring your father back. While she is with her suitors, she makes sure that her son sleeps with radio and earphones on, so that he won’t find out the truth. On the other hand, she thinks if her son will ever wakes up and find her with one of her suitors, she will tell him that it’s his father visiting for one night. The angles have sent him here for one night, so that you can meet your father. And if he asks about the angles, she’ll say that they haven’t arrived yet and tell him that angles have themselves a lifetime to come to us. I think that because she is a poor and helpless mother, who’s in this professor for some money, so she can take care of her son. So, I don’t think that she’s doing something wrong. It could’ve been wrong if she had done it for her own satisfaction. I also think that most of these night women are in this kind of profession because of their helplessness. I don’t think women are only responsible for it, it the men who comes first to turn woman’s life into a different angle.

Krik? Krak!

Krik? Krak! Is a beautiful collection of nine short stories and epilogue written by Edwidge Danticat. The title of the book comes from the Haitian storytellers. The stories take place in different locations like Port-au-Prince, Ville Rose, Haiti, or New York.  I think the stories are tied together pretty good. These stories give you emotional feelings for the Haitian people. I think this book is good book to get to know about the Haitian and feel their pain. I think this book holds the love, pain, culture, and the worse time of the Haitians life. I think that the first opening story of the book called “Children of the Sea” is extremely powerful piece to make you read the rest of the book. And makes you have feeling about the Haitians and get to know about their painful truth of life. The second story of the book called “nineteen Thirty-Seven” is one of my favorite stories, because it really touches my heart. It’s a story of a daughter and her mother separated by the prison. When I was reading this story, I could really feel the pain of them. All the images were coming into my mind and I felt so heartbroken.  “1937” is narrated by Josephine, whose mother is imprisoned as a witch. Hours before Josephine’s birth, her mother swam across a blood-filled river to Haiti from the Dominican Republic. Every year, she and her mother performed rituals at the Massacre River. When her mother got arrested, Josephine saw her getting tortured so badly by the group of people and she couldn’t do anything to save her. Probably because of that whenever Josephine went to see her mother, it was a really hard time for her while talking to her mother. She could hardly speak to her. Whenever she met her mother, she brought her Madonna (a statue). Her mother would make Madonna cry using wax and oil. When her mother dies, another ritual performer named Jacqueline takes Josephine to see her mother’s body gets burned in the yard. So, this was the terrible story of a mother and her daughter. I think it’s a type of story that after reading it, it would make bonds between the readers (daughter and mother) even stronger and faithful to each other. I think who ever will read this story, you probably don’t see the tears in their eyes, but their hearts probably cry.

Second response on 19 Varieties of Gazelle



After reading more poems and class discussions, I found that one of the main and important part in 19 Varieties of Gazelle is Nye’s family.  I love two of her poems called My Father and The Figtree and The Words Under the Words. I think for Nye her family is the most important part in her life, and probably because of that she never forgot to mention her family throughout her poems. I loved this poem My Father and the Figtree. This poem is related especially to her father’s background and culture. It tells us that her father is still connected to his past cultural life. As you read this poem it creates a picture in your mind, and it becomes more interesting to read. Her father didn’t really tell her in words that he loved figs. Nye found out by listening to his stories. I think her father always talked about figs, because he wanted to feel like he was in his homeland. Nye wrote, “I’m talking about a fig straight from the earth --- gift of Allah!”. Her father believed that figs are the gift of God, so getting figs for him was like getting gifts from God. Figs were God’s blessing for him. So that also tells us that her father was very religious. Her father was like a dreamer, he didn’t finish the work that he ever started. He always wanted figs, but never planted them. But I think he had faith in himself, that’s why he finally gets a figtree with the sweetest figs in the world and felt like his homeland. So I would say her father was very faithful, patient, determined, innocent, and was very dedicated to the figtree. And with all that he finally gets what he wanted or I would say what he deserved.

First response to 19 varieties of Gazelle

The first thing I would like to say about this poetry is that it’s a type of poetry that can be read by young’s and adults both. I don’t read poetry, but after reading this book, I felt like I read someone’s heart. It was so good to read a book like this. This is a fantastic book in its own way and a great introduction to the talent and skills of Naomi Shihab Nye. I think she is a great poet. I think her poems have a lot of simplicity and honesty in it. I think what she is basically telling us through this poetry is about the emotions that all of us feel. I think her heart has been touched so much by the Middle East and all the pain that she and her family had to go through. After all that, I think she is still trying to tell the people, that there is still love and we should share it with others. I loved her poems where she talked about figs and olives. One of her poems called the Biography Of An Armenian Schoolgirl is one of my favorite poems. In this poem she talked about her life when she was a schoolgirl. In this poem she is telling us that how she was learning new things everyday. In this poem Nye wrote, “What is the history of Europe to us if we cannot choose our own husbands? ”.   I think I can exactly understand this situation, because being from a different country, I have seen these strict cultured rules being forced on others. These rules, that you can’t choose your husband according to you, are still being used. By reading this poem, it’s also telling me that Nye school life probably been tougher. She wrote, “They pull our hair back and examine our nails”. So, I think she was punished in the school, for not being interested in the subject that her teachers wanted her to learn, but she wanted to learn something else. So I think what she is basically telling us through this poem is that you want to do something else, but something different happen. It probably doesn’t always go according to our wishes. I think poem is like a whole story of an unfortunate life that doesn’t go according to us. Overall, I would say that this poetry is great, and teaches a lot of lesson of life.