When the Emperor was Divine 2…….

                                       

I look at “When the Emperor was Divine” as a dream of hope and freedom. I think Julie Otsuka uses a lot of description in this novel, which is very fair. I think without the description of places, people and things, the reader can’t have the feel of how everything was or how bad it was. I think she tried her best to make the reader believe or imagine how everything looked like or settled. I think she describes it really well that how people lived in those barracks and the dessert that was so hot without any trees or anything else to look at it. We discussed in the class that in Julie writing, there is a lack of emotions I think the reason why she didn’t put emotionsinto it, because she knows the story of those poor people, who went through a lot. And it could be the reason that her heart turned into rock and she didn't want to put her pain in front of the reader. She wants to hide her emotions and let the readers feel the pain.  I felt really sad while reading the description of those barracks and how people try to make it feel like home. I feel very sad for those people, who were all shattered and left the hope of getting back to their houses. I felt really bad for children, who lost their childhood in those barracks. They did had chance to play, but everything was just so restricted. The fun, the freedom, or the feel of home and family that we have while playing at home or school, barracks can’t give that to those children who spent those years in there. I think while living in barracks, there is still a hope of getting back home. People, especially the kids and elders are trying to remember their houses by looking at the paths that are going to their houses and the children by playing the games that they learned at home. “Mrs. Kato, who talked to herself night and day. The boy often saw her standing in her doorway with a small wicker suitcase, trying to remember the way home” (55). So, the hope of freedom is everywhere. The boy who wanted to see the horses and wanted to become a jockey tries to find freedom everywhere. Whenever he gets a chance, he tries to make the situation feel like as he’s living his dream. “On the train ride into the desert he had slept with his head in his sister’s lap and dreamed he was riding an enormous white horse by the sea” (52). I think not just the boy, but everyone else is also living their life of freedom or following the goals in their dreams, because they don’t know if they are going back or not. So why not make the dreams our life. I think that the boy has a feel of that he’s not going back home, because when his mother tells him that her face cream is finish and she should’ve brought two. The boy replies her saying that “Maybe three”. So, I think at some points the boy is broken and he’s trying to make the dessert and the barracks his home by playing checkers and other Chinese games. The condition they were living in were really bad, especially the “dust”. “It made your nose bleed, eyes sting, voice away, gets into hairs, shoes, pants, mouth, and your bed”(64). I would say all these people who lived there were really very brave. The conditions that they had to go through were really bad and we can’t even imagine them. I thank God from all of us, who are far away from those conditions and pray that no one else would have to go through all that ever again.

               

When The Emperor Was Divine

“When The Emperor Was Divine” is a great novel. I think it’s well written and easy to stay connected with. I think Julie Otsuka has written this novel very straight forward. She just comes to the main point or I would say just what exactly the reader needs to know.  I like to read stories that just tell you what you really need to know, not the things that are just extra added to them. This novel seems like it’s going to be one of favorite novels of mine. I have heard about Pearl Harbor, the war, and little bit about American Japanese, but I never heard anything about the Interned Camps and what happened in them. I think this novel and class discussions are going to help me a lot learn about them and I am really looking forward to it. The novel starts with a story of a mother, who is living with her children in America. This family’s living style’s a lot like American families. The children like to play baseball and piano, which is very American and also they only speak English. The mother is trying very hard to give her children the best life she could. I think she is trying to make her kids to be like American and live like American, so that no one would harass them for not living like American, while being in America. Her husband is away from her at Fort Sam Houston, because government thought he could be a traitor or spy, so they arrested him. “She had not seen her husband since his arrest last December”(10). She is only there to take care of the kids and the house. She plays different roles in the house, including the role of husband as her children’s daddy. I think she is very strong to take care of her family as best as she could do. She’s very religious too. When she was putting the pictures in the box, “she made sure to put Jesus on top”. Believing in Jesus also represents of her living as an American. The whole family was going, but they didn’t know where they were going. “She did not know where they were going or how long they would be gone or who would be living in their house while they were gone” (8-9). I think she was happy and hopeful that she was going out, but she didn’t know the consequences that what’s about to happen with her family. I think she killed the dog before she left, because she loved him. I mean he was old and she probably thought he might die after she leaves, so why shouldn’t I kill him now that way he won’t have to suffer. By setting the bird free, I think is a significance of freedom. I think she wanted everyone in the house to be free before she leaves. I think she good mother. She’s trying her best to save her children from the taunts by making them live like Americans. I am really looking forward to find out about what’s going to happen with them and how the mother will take good care of her children and her husband.

In His Beauty I See My Own

                                      

Lack of someone’s attention and love were the two main things that kept Precious Jones behind from the other kids, scared of her parents and not raising her voice against the violence that she was tolerating. Till she met Mrs. Rain, she was always scared of her parents. There was no one else who could help her to raise her voice against them. Her mother treated her like she was her slave. Her mother considered her the reason of snatching her husband away from her. She never cared about her needs. Even when precious had her baby and she had pain in her shoulders and she felt like she was going to die, her mother made her cook the food and made her eat, even when she was full. Her mother took advantage of her. The check that Precious and her little mongo used to get, her mother would keep it. I think if Abdul and Mrs. Rain haven’t come into her life, her life would’ve been different. Mrs. Rain taught her the lesson of learning and not considered her self a waste. Precious thought that because is overweight and black nobody loves her, if she had been white, people would like her. But, Mrs. Rain made her believe that she is beautiful and she and her son love her. When precious had son, she was more mature than she was for Little Mongo. Because she couldn’t do anything for Mongo, she decided to take care of Abdul and not let her mother take advantage of them. “My muver took Little Mongo but she ain’ taking this one”(64). Mrs. Rain was the one who force her to learn and be independent, and her son was her motivator to live and love him. It was only her son, who she wanted to live for, be educated, and do a good job. When he was born, she also started to take care of her self, because she had to be healthy enough to raise him. “I feed Abdul. My body is his breakfast. I gotta get something to eat myself” (78). I think Abdul is very important in her life. If she hadn’t had him, she probably have had ended her life. She lived for him and saw her beauty in him. “He my shiny brown boy. In his beauty I see my own” (139). The life that she couldn’t live, she wanted her son to live. If her son lives his life to the fullest, he would also live her life as well. She wanted him to give all the rights and happiness that she couldn’t get. He was only her hope, to live her rest of the life as a normal happy life. I think by giving him the attention that she couldn’t get from her parents, her soul was in peace that at least she tried her best to be good to her child. Her name is Precious, but it’s not just her name, she is a precious woman. Even after going through all that she gave her son the best life that she could. I just hope that when her son grows up, he would do the same for her. This would make her feel that she is really precious. It will be her victory over her parents that she is nothing like them.

In His Beauty I See My Own

"PUSH" BY SAPPHIRE

                                                      

 “PUSH” by Sapphire is a very shocking novel. It’s also an awareness to the reader about all those women who have been sexually and physically abused. I think the novel speaks innocence and the pain in precious life. While I was reading it, some of the moments were like I wanted to cry. I was not able to read any further, but I had to with a hope of whether Mrs. Precious Jones will get what she deserves or not. I can’t believe that Mrs. Precious Jones has been through the things I can’t even imagine. I mean how your own father can do that to you. Your father is the one who teaches you about your life and all the right principals to live in a society as a good human being. Your father is like a second God for you, who direct you to a right path of life. A child has a lot of expectation from his parents. Parents are the one, who love a child as their only precious thing. A child means everything to them. They are always willing to do anything for their child. The only goal in their life is to give their child a best life they can. But Precious Jones, she never had that good moment in her life. Her mother and father always disrespected her by abusing her sexually and physically. Her father got her pregnant, when she was only twelve. “Twelve”, when she was child herself. She did not even know, what it means to be pregnant. But, her father never cared. He even asked his own daughter to marry him. I think he is biggest destroyer of her life. Being a good father is far enough, he couldn’t even respect the relation of a daughter and father. “I’m gonna marry you, he be saying. First he mess up my life fucking me, then he mess up fucking talkin. You my daddy, fucking me illegal” (24). I mean it’s unbelievable to even think about. When I read this part, I felt like I wanted to kill her daddy. He’s a biggest stain on this earth and he got no right to live. He got her pregnant again, when she was sixteen. A second baby from her father was a feeling like someone’s pushing her into the kiln. I think only a husband has the right over a women’s body, but for Precious it was her father.

 Another fact that was lacking in Precious life till she was sixteen was education. She went to school, but no one pay attention to her. I think the biggest thing Precious was lacking in her life was “ATTENTION” and “HOPE”. No one pay attention to her needs. At home or school, no one cared whether she is getting what she needs in her life. She did wanted to learn like other kids, but she never found someone who could direct her to the right path. “I always did like school, jus’ seem school never did like me” (37). Because of appearance and being black, she could never make any friends. I think because no one helped her, God was there for her. I think God was the one who helped her to go through all the bad times and gave her courage to not to end her life, but live through those sorrowful circumstances that a normal girl can never live, which makes Precious a special or a precious girl. I think her name says everything. Her name in just not a name, it’s a signal for the world that she is really a precious girl, who is chosen by God and very unique to him. That’s the reason she met Mrs. Rain, who showed her a different path of life. Who taught Precious, her ABC and made her aware of the world. Mrs. Rain was the first person, who Precious liked. “I want to hug kiss Miz Rain. She make me feel good” (55). She didn’t even love her children as her own children. She considered them raped children, but because of Mrs. Rain she did took care of Abdul as her son. She couldn’t love him, but she also didn’t hate him. She gave/taught him all things that she couldn’t get. When he was hardly talking, he knew his ABC, which tells us that Precious was very good at heart. She didn’t left him considering he was from her father, but she gave him a batter life then her own. I think that Mrs. Rain is also responsible for that. I considered Mrs. Rain as her mother, who actually forced her to do what was right. Precious needed someone who can respond back to her questions, who she can share her feeling with. That was Mrs. Rain; she shared everything with her, which makes me think Mrs. Rain as her mother. Mrs. Rain was the reason, who made Precious like to write. “I mean thas what had made me really like writhing in the beginning, knowing Mrs. Rain gonna write me back when I talk to her” (94). I think I’m very lucky to have good parents and teachers. I can’t even imagine being on Precious place. It shivers me when I even think about all the circumstances that she went through. I thank God for giving me good parents and the teachers who have put to the right path of life. I just hope, whatever happened with Precious Jones, would never happen to another Precious Jones.

FUN HOME………..4

                                       

My overall response to “Fun Home” is kind of in the middle. It was not that great experience reading it, but a good experience trying to follow the pictures with the commentary. I don’t think that it has a very strong message. It was definitely a great idea for Alison to write her story as a graphical novel. I think her idea of writing the novel with pictures in it was to show the expressions on family’s faces. Pictures tell the reader a different story than reading the commentary alone. Alison’s family is very different than a normal family. Through the pictures, you can see their moods changing. Some pictures show a perfect and a happy family, and some shows like it’s not a family, like they don’t know what a normal family is. This story is little about the family, but more about a daughter and her father. I think in some ways, they were same. Alison probably denied that her father was not a perfect man, but some how she followed his foot step. It was probably that her father’s image was unclear to her. Her father’s changing characters probably took her away from him, but still she was very connected to him. Even though he was not that nice to the children at most times, but still he cared about Alison. He showed his rights over her. He used to give bath, dress her, and teach her how to do things. Just like a normal father, he would scold her when she wouldn’t follow what he asked her to do. When he didn’t see the barrette on her head and Alison made an excuse by saying that it fell out, he said, “I don’t care! Next time I see you without it, I’ll wale you” (97). So, I think he was not a bad person, but probably the circumstance in his life made him in the way he was. I would call him a multi-character, who doesn’t live a one character life. By reading this novel, I felt that it was only her father, who she was close to, because I really didn’t see any deeper connection with her mother or her siblings. I think she was just confused about her father, but really admired him. After her father’s death, she probably realized what he really was and published this novel for him. Overall, it was a good novel, but the title really disconnected me from the book. I wish it was a different topic.

Story of daughter and father continue…………..

                                          

After father’s death, Alison’s still thinking about her father’s death and talking about his passion about gardening. Sometimes, she says, he died because he probably saw the snake that she did. Then, she thinks about her dream that she saw two days before he died. She saw the glorious sunset that was visible through the tress, but when her father comes, there was nothing. Then she thinks, “If this was a premonitory dream, I can only say that its condolence-card association of death with a setting sun is maudlin in the extreme”. So, she thinks that it was a sign for his death and the list of his death reasons continue…s.  

            Her father was a big fan of gardening. He just loved flower plants/trees. From the garden to the bedrooms, it was all flowers. They can be “silk flowers, glass flowers, needlepoint flower, flower painting, where any of these failed to materialize, floral patterns (90)”. He almost had most of the flower kinds. “Our home was an efflorescence of bulbs, buds, and blooms, flowers wild and cultivated, native and imported, flowering vines and trees...”. Her father’s favorite flowers were the Lilacs. When Alison was seven, she wrote some poetry and showed to her father. Her father would add in a line that includes flowers in it. So, I think that flowers were a big part of her father’s life. Connection with gardening shows that her father was a nature person. Even though he was little disconnected with his family at certain times, but he enjoyed spring and liked nature a lot.

            I think Alison had a lot of respect for her father and always wanted to start everything with him. Even when it comes to writing her own auto-biography, her father was the one who helped her to start. “The first three words are in my father’s handwriting, as if he were giving me a jump start” (140). I think that even writing this novel was an inspiration from her father. By writing this book, she wanted to express her love for her father that she probably couldn’t express when he was alive. It could be the reason that she always tried to find out the reason that why he died through the chapters. I think that there relationship was very unique, which was sometime filled with love and sometime anger.