The Shawl cont......

‘The Shawl” is not very a positive story to read for the reader. I haven’t finished the book yet, but it really seems hopeless that Rosa Lublin will ever change. I think the story of Rosa is very lifeless. I means she just don’t want to move on in her life. She’s just sticked to her past. She just can’t leave it behind. I think her destiny is really giving her good opportunities to get out of her past, but it’s like she don’t want to have them. She just wants to punish herself by not having any kind of happiness in her life. Sometimes, she tries but she just can’t get over her grieves. I really think that she has become mentally challenged or it could be that no one can really understand her situation that why she do things that she do.

After getting out of the camps and smashing her own antique store, she went to Miami, Florida. She is living their all alone. Her niece is in New York. She has on one else to live with. She is still all alone in her grieves of her daughter Magda. “She had no one but her cold niece in Queens, New York”. She makes her life live in poverty. She just stays in her room and only gets out to do any important work like “laundry”. Her destiny gave her another chance to move on in her life. She meets this seventy-one years old man named Simon Persky in the laundry. Somehow, they get into conversation and talk about their selves and their past. They found out that they were both from Warsaw and meeting in Miami. I think this was not a coincidence that they met, but it was Rosa’s luck that was giving her another chance, but I don’t think that she really wants it. In the laundry he helps her doing her laundry and put her cloths in the carriage. He asks her to help her with the cart to her house and anyhow she agrees. She does make excuses to get rid of him, but he handles it well. She says, “You got internal warning about talking to a stranger”. In replies he tells her his name and makes himself not a stranger anymore. He tells her about his life and then she tells him about her life. She tells him how she smashed up her own store, because she like the people or I would say she just want to give herself more pain. Persky realizes that she is living in her past and she needs to move on. So he advices her, “You can’t live in the past”. But Rosa probably didn’t head him. Then in way he asked her to come to self-serving cafeteria and she agrees. I was really surprised about that how come she agreed. For while, I thought that she is probably interested in him and want to move on with him. But, it was my dilution. In the cafeteria, they had conversation about themselves and the family. After a while, she left all alone just like before and past life comes back. When she gets home she receives Madga’s shawl from Stella. And she goes wild again by kissing it and by crying over it. So, no matter what happens in her life, she comes back to where she starts off. I really thought that Persky is the one who will change her life, but not really. I think no one can change her till she decides to change herself. I hope that the ending of this book will be hopeful. I’m really hoping that she change, if not I don’t think it’s going to be a positive story for the reader.

"The Shawl"

“The Shawl” is a very small, unique, and extremely powerful story written by Cynthia Ozick. It’s a small story, but there are so many details that are hard to follow. I found it hard to keep up everything in my mind when I was reading it. It’s a very emotional story of a mother, her daughter, and her fourteen years old niece. I would call this story, “a Magda’s story”, because it’s really about her life and death. Rosa is Magda’s mother and just like every other mother she was trying really hard to protect her daughter from the guards. Magda is only few months old and a very unique child. She is a good child, she wouldn’t cry at all and also I think she had some sort of disabilities and because of them she didn’t act like a normal child. “Rosa believed that something had gone wrong with her vocal cords, with her windpipe, with the cave of her larynx; Magda was defective, without a voice; perhaps she was deaf; there might be something amiss with her intelligence; Magda was dumb”. Even then, I think Magda was a good child and because of her innocence she survived for some time at the camps. Rosa loved her daughter a lot just like any other mothers and that’s why she always had fear that Magda was going to die soon. Fear of Magda’s death was making her really weak. She couldn’t take care of herself. “She was afraid to fall asleep; she slept with the weight of her thigh on Magda’s body”. I feel really bad for Rosa, who lived a life of fear of losing her child. She knew that if the soldiers find her baby, Madga’s dead and that was the reason that she would always keep Magda wrapped in the shawl, which has been protecting Magda for months. But, she didn’t know that her own kin will deceive her. Stella who was always jealous of Magda and wanted to be wrapped in the shawl that Magda was wrapped in. She was the one of the reasons that caused Magda’s death, because she took the shawl away from her. Because Madga didn’t have the shawl around her, guards found out about her and threw her into the electrified fence. Even Rosa couldn’t do anything, because if she had gone to save her, she would’ve ended up dyeing also. She was not able to do anything. So, she took Magda’s shawl and put it into her mouth and tried to feel her Magda in it. “She filled her mouth with it, stuffed it in and stuffed it in, until she was swallowing up the wolf’s screech and tasting the cinnamon and almond depth of Magda’s saliva; and Rosa drank Magda’s shawl until dried”. I think Rosa suffered a lot. She was a very helpless mother, who couldn’t even do anything else rather than feeling Magda in the shawl. “The Shawl” which was probably the savior of Madga, but at the end it was also the reason of Magda’s death. I think the author called this story “The Shawl”, because the shawl was the protector of Magda, but it was also the reason that took a daughter away from her mother. Overall, I think it a good story. It has a lot innocence of a relationship of a mother and daughter. Even though they were in the camps, but they were very close to each other. It was the reason that Magda’s first word was Ma. It shows that no matter where you are, a relationship of a mother and a daughter is always strong.

HoPe CoNtInUeS…………..

                                      

The time went by and finally back at the house in fall. “Fall”, which I think refers to the family’s situation also (mentally, physically, and economically). Just like in fall all the leaves fall, grass turns brown, and sign of winter, snow the bad time of year comes. I think the family’s situation was very similar to it. I think this novel has connection with everything. Just like fall, the family was all broken/fallen by all the bad times they had to go through. Coming back for them was very fortunate, but at the same time for society they were not respected people at all. They had lost their identity, marked people, and they were very mentally disturbed also. They were not considered in high/mid level society at all. When they tried to get friendly with those same people who were nice to them, they would also ignore them. “Now when we ran into these same people on the street they turned away and pretended not to see us”(115). I think society should help them come out of their grief, but they wouldn’t because of arrogance. I think this family is very brave. They still have hopes and they are trying to get over with their past and move on with their life leaving the past behind. They are not thinking about what they lost, but what they have to gain. They are happy to be home. They feel that they are lucky that they have home to come back to, because there are a lot of other people who had nowhere to go. “Many people who had come back with us on the train had no homes to return to at all”(109). They know that their house is not in good condition, but still they have a hope that they will make their house just like it was before. They will sleep on separate beds all alone and they will have good food to eat. They will go back to school and make up for the years they have missed. They will dress like other students and they’ll change their name. They will have good food to eat again. Their mother started to work at other’s houses and bought her children new dress, house things, and good food, etc. She even worked when she had a day off to get some extra money for her family. “On her days off she took in washing and ironing to make a few extra dollars” (129). I think their mother is the bravest character in this novel. Because even being mentally and physically, and economically disturbed (cheated by Milt Parker), she didn’t give up. She tried her best to give her children the best life she can. When they came back home, there was hardly anything left in it, but still by working hard she bought the things that they needed to live. I think this family is very strong. I also think that in some way it’s a happy ending story. This family has high hopes. They know how to leave the past behind and look for good future. I think moving on in life is the only way to have a better life and this family has proven that. They are moving on with a lot of hopes, which is the only way one can come out of his grieves. I think this story is very powerful for the readers who are also emotionally and physically disturbed. It can be a good way for them to find a right path and move on with their lives. I think Julie Otsuka has done a great job writing this novel.

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