· Identify a section or passage from your memoir that would be worth analyzing through one of the lenses. Summarize this section briefly, in a sentence or two.
· Then analyze this section or passage through one of the lenses in a few sentences.
· Close your blog post with a lens question related to your analysis, that any classmate—no matter which memoir they are reading, can respond to. (Examples: Is anyone else starting to feel that their memoirist’s memory is unreliable? Is anyone else’s memoirist struggling with his/her performance of gender role norms? Is anyone else seeing examples blurred lines between the “colonizer” and the “colonist”?)
· Respond to at least 2 of your peers’ posts.
A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius - Dave Eggers
ReplyDeleteQuote: "I love Pete, and he means no harm, but why this question? Why this question in one night? ... What answer could Pete, could John, be expecting? A ridiculous question. How is your brother? makes sense, and can be answered easily: Toph is fine. But why Where?
So Dave left his brother home with a baby-sitter to go out with his friends because he feels like he needs to get a life other than taking care of his brother. However, he keeps thinking about what if the baby-sitter is a crazy person. Would the "fun" be worth his brother's life? When he goes to his friend's house to chill, all his friends are asking him where is his brother.
Looking through Lacan's theory of the "other", Dave feels like he is being treated like the other since it's only him and his brother in this world. By keep having to answer the question: Where is your brother?, Dave gets frustrated. This is all they want to know about him. If his parents were around, this wouldn't be a question but now since it is, Dave is being treated as the "other" when he just wanted one night to be just like his friends and have fun.
Does your memoirist feel like society is not letting him/her fit in?
Post colonial theory **
DeleteMy memoirist feels that society is accepting him due to the fact that he had a sickness and he is not letting that stop him from pursuing his dream of becoming a national champ!
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ReplyDeleteOrange is the new black by Piper Kerman
ReplyDeleteThe part I chose to talk about from the memoir was when Piper was told there are three different dorms, and each of them housed the different races of people in prison. White women lived in Dorm A and it's called "the suburbs", black women lived in Dorm B and it's called "the Ghetto", latino women lived in Dorm C and it's called "Spanish Harlem".
I will use post colonial theory as a reference. The prison separated prisoners based on their ethnicities on purpose because they wanted to divide prisoners in someway. When Piper entered the prison, she mostly met white prisoners and she felt like they had a lot things in common. However, when Piper was moved to Dorm B, she had trouble living with black prisoners; she looked them down and she thinks black prisoners are "others". The division in prisons made up the post colonial theory in Piper's mind.
Question: Was your memoirist affected by the places she/he lived in?
Yes Lin my memoirist has been affected by the place he lives because he doesn't have a lot of choices that a person living in a big city would have.
DeleteIn my memoir i do see that my memoirist is affected by his habitual surroundings, but it can't be called a place that my memoirist truly lives in because thats not really his home. Everyday, my memoirist is affected by the concentration camp that he inhabits.
DeleteConsidering my characters had a hard time finding an apartment due to their circumstances, the area they settled in affected them. Starting from the school, drive to work and neighbors, my characters had a difficult time accepting adjusting.
DeleteYes, my memoirist has been affected by the places he lived in. Simalarly to what Jessica said, but adding on, my memoirist had to move to a different place and he had to meet new people and it has become difficult for him. Also because he has to leave his little brother with a babysitter which is hard to find because the ones he has encountered seem to blow it off.
Deletesimilarly*** sheesh sorry. >,<
DeleteLiving in Harlem at that time, my memoirist had to be more street smart because that was a very dangerous time, where crime never slept
DeleteMy memoirist feels affected when shes being hospitalized. She fells her weakest and feels very insecure when she is at the hospital.
DeleteI agree with you and nice interpretation!
DeleteBook: 6 Minutes Wrestling With Life: A Family's Tragedy To Triumph
ReplyDelete"My mind is reviewing the night's events. My instinct was right. Last night at about 2:00 a.m. Jess spiked a fever of over 103 degrees."
We can definitely see how Freud's theory is applied here. The protagonist is remembering every little detail that happened this horrible night. This is a memory that his brain wanted to absorb because it just meant so much to him. Even though there are so many memories the protagonist is acquiring, he remembers the new ones, such as this one, and lets the old memories slowly disappear. This is a memory that had such a huge effect on him that he chooses to remember every detail there is to it.
Has your memoirist ever been effected by a memory so much that he or she remembered every detail about it?
In my memoir, my memoirist experiences tragic and unforgettable scenes everyday. So when you read about his experience, you can explicitly see how sharply he remembers every detail because it was just an unforgettable series of memories.
DeleteI think my memoirist remembered the time his father died, then later when his mother did too clearly. Since he now has to take care of his brother, it is hard to forget the time when the two most important people in his life disappeared and gave him that role.
DeleteI agree with Jessica. My memoirist is responsible of taking care of his little brother so yes he is constantly reminded. Also, he keeps his fathers wallet which reminds him of many things as well.
Deleteprecious remembers the detail of her rape. Everything that she hears or do remind her of that horrid situation. As a side note, I feel that the more you try to forget, the more you remember.
DeleteI feel that is impossible to forget about memories that have changed your life for ever. As much as you would try to, that memory will always be with you.
DeleteNice question!
DeleteMy memoirist has been affected by a memory which she thought she could run away from but at the end it caught back up with her. She remembers every detail and in conclusion it is easy to say that this memory has forever impacted her live in a negative manner.
A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius by Dave Eggers
ReplyDeleteQuote: "It's Friday night and I should be out, across the Bay, I should be out every night, with the rest of the young people, fixing my hair, spilling beer, trying to get someone to touch my penis..."
Post Colonial Theory: It's very common for a guy to feel limited when they have to take care of someone or do something when they want to do something else. Most commonly, they like to party, drink or have a good time with friends for the weekend. (Girls do too). Dave experiences a lot of these moments since he is stuck taking care of Toph. By not having many friends, he looks at himself as the "other." Unfortunately, the only thing Dave can do to change this is to get rid of Toph but he can't. "Othering" himself is almost inevitable.
Question: Has any of your characters began viewing themselves as an "other?"
Yes ! My character is othering herself. She believes that because of her illness she is an other but in actuality her friends and family are her biggest supporters.
DeleteDefinitely, and I think this can be a positive thing for my memoirist. Being viewed as an "other" just gives you the edge and motivation to be better than the others in my opinion. Especially when it comes to a sport, there is no problem with that.
DeleteMy character review them as an "other" because she looked down on other race prisoners and she think they are different.
DeleteA Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius by Dave Eggers
ReplyDeleteQuote: So yes, I could be out, enjoying this freedom specifically and that of youth generally, exulting in the richness of my time and place. But no. I will be here, at home. Toph and I will cook, as usual..." (Page 104).
Summarry/Post Colonial Theory: Dave and Toph moved to a new place and they're trying to settle in. Dave and Beth agreed on letting Toph go with Dave after their parent's died. So now it has become Dave's responsibility. Because of this, Dave's freedom is limited; he has to come straight home each day because he doesn't trust the babysitters and he barely has anytime for himself.
Question: Is anyone else starting to feel like their memoirist is encountering moments where he/she feels like they're excluded from the outside world because of certain responsibilities? Or where he/she feels like the other?
Summary* Postcolonial*
DeleteMy memoirist does feel like she's excluded from the outside world because she's stuck in prison. She feels like she's losing a lot by being stuck inside.
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DeleteIt's terrible how exclusion is at times the safest thing for somebody. For someone raised in a society like ours, where we have been raised to be codependent, this can be tortuous.
DeleteMemoir: "Night" by Elie Wiesel
ReplyDeleteQuote: " 'Look at me in the eye!' I looked at him without seeing him"
In this excerpt the memoirist is being forced to make eye contact with one the German officers. The German officer is about to punish the memoirist in a brutal manner for a mistake the memoirist committed. Lacan's theory can be applied in this instant because the eye contact between the german officer and Elie is creating the impression that they and they only exist for one another at that very moment and it only makes the moment that much more intimate and personal. Is anyone else experiencing such relationships in their memoirs?
I like the vivid imagery you use to covey the message of the memoirist!
DeleteBrain on Fire by Susannah Callahan
ReplyDeleteQuote: "Who gives a sh*t about what anyone things about me. Im going to-"
Summary: This was a diary entry taken from Susannah's computer when she first started to experience the onset of her disease. She writes about 4 of these entries about her family babying her, her boyfriend's amazing ways, and then an odd entry
about how she doesn't care about what other people think of her.
Analysis using post colonial lens: I thought that this was interesting because Susannah is a writer for the Post, and she is constantly being critiqued on her work. In the beginning it was clear that she did care about the way that people felt about her but for some reason, after her brain impairment, she is unable to understand that she has to care. She becomes rude and behaves in a childlike manner- totally unaware of the thought of the people around her.
Question: Is anyone else's memoirist almost ignoring the idea of post colonialism for some specific reason ?
In my memoir, the memoirist is actually trying to ignore the idea of post colonial and being an other event though there are certain things that do make her an other.
DeleteI find my memoirist dancing around the idea of race. I wish he explored it more overtly, than how he is currently doing it with subtle undertones in the anecdotes he tells.
DeleteTo an extent, my memoirist is since he chooses to not let the categorization of him as an other by certain people faze him.
ReplyDeletePush by Sapphire
ReplyDeleteQuote: "Listen baby, Muver love you. Muver not dumb. Listen baby: ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ." In the scene of the book, Precious is writing to ms.Rain about her new born baby. Precious goes to an alternative school to get her G.E.D however, she cannot read or write properly. Ms rain assigned this as a way to improve writing while also finding ones self.
Using Freud's lens, I see that precious is in fact helping his theory, because before in the book, she could not read or write. When she was giving this assignment, she did not know her alphabet. She felt like she was very stupid. She memorized the alphabet by bringing it into her short term memory then used the "wax" to actually store it.
Question: Is there an example in your book, where your memoirist felt like their memory of a situation was false?
I would say no because my memoirist remembers things that he believes are not false and that he may never forget about
DeleteI think all memories my memoirist contains of her past self she feels is false. She doesn't remember many memories, those that she remembers she can only recall vaguely. In addition, she feels disconnected with her past self whenever presented with evidence of her past. And so I imagine she feels all her memories are false and although she knows it isn't, i'm sure she also feels the evidence of her past feels false as well.
DeletePush ' Sapphire
ReplyDeleteQuote "School? Mama say. 'Go down to welfare, school can't help you none'..."
Post colonial' this quote I believe fits in with the stereotype that African-Americans solely depend on welfare rather than trying to make change of their situation. Although Precious is attempting to do that by going to an alternative school, her mother is restricting her.
Question: Is your memoirist being held back by society to fit the stereotypes put in place?
That is the case in my book, people's opinions are a serious factor in your own decision making. That is what I learned in my book. Its either people make the decision for you or they will do their best to make your opinion and theirs converge. These types of scenarios restrict your freedom from what you want to do. These are the types of things that I am undergoing while I read.
DeleteMy memoirist feels insecure about her disease and tries to fit into society; although, she feels like there is no possible way for her to be seen as being normal to others and those surrounding her.
DeleteIt's interesting how prevalent the negative stigma of welfare is, despite the fact that it was created so that people could benefit off of it, which they do.
Delete"6 Minutes Wrestling With Life: A Family's Tragedy to Triumph" by JohnA Passaro
ReplyDeleteQuote: "I am glad my decisions will go from choosing being 'blind or 'deaf' to choosing 'top, bottom or neutral'. I just can't believe this is happening."
After overcoming this disease, my memoirist is finally set to wrestle. He would not have to choose from two necessities we need in life, hearing and seeing. Imagine having to choose which one you would prefer to live with? I would have a very hard time contemplating between the two.
Post-colonial: I chose this theory to look at because it ties into my quote. For those of you that don't understand the, "top, bottom or neutral" part of the quote they are different wrestling positions to be in against your opponent. Now that my memoirist is not ill and can finally be accepted to wrestle again. Is he still considered the other? I believe that even though he is approved to wrestle it does not mean he is just going to have no problem wrestling. He will surely experience some discomfort considering that he took some time off from the mats. I want to know his game plan for his matches and his routine for his practices. Maybe this will motivate him to push for gold and overcome his fear of getting back on the mats because of his previous illness.
Question: Is anyone else's memoirist going through a chronic illness or any type of health problem that might hinder the chances of them succeeding in what they want to achieve?
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DeleteOrange is the New Black: My Year in a Women's Prison by Piper Kerman
ReplyDeleteQuote:"it has gotten to the point where I was embarrassed, and also it made me nervous; it was a clear demonstration that I "had it like that" on the outside..."
Summary: Piper has been receiving a lot of books in prison from relatives and friends. It has got to the point where she feels uncomfortable and it makes her nervous.
Post colonial Lens: It is obvious that Piper has a lot of advantages. She has people who care and support her from outside. A lot of the other women in prison do not have anyone to support them emotionally or financially. Piper is starting to feel like an other because of these advantages.
Question: Are there any advantages or disadvantages that make your memoirist an other?
Yes, my memoirist is disadvantaged since he doesn't have citizenship, which makes it harder for him to obtain certain things. Because he's not a citizen he chooses not to tell most of his friends, but they speak about undocumented immigrants and their negative effects in front of him, which eventually shows how he is viewed as on other.
DeleteYes, my memoirist think she has a lot of advantages because she is more educated, skillful than other prisoners. She think she knows more stuff than them.
DeleteYes, but my memoir is othering herself, whether she experiences advantages or disadvantages at the hospital due to her being a white woman aren't clearly shown, however she does experience being an other due to her own mental state. She is disadvantaged because she is causing her own distress, although its not her fault, perhaps if her sense of being an other was coming from other people she would have some control over the sensation. You can't escape from your own mind.
DeleteUndocumented by Dan-el Padilla Peralta
ReplyDeleteQuote: "Turns out San Diego had told her parents about me a little before we'd both gone gone for break, and they'd deaded the prospect of an interracial relationship instantly: under no circumstances was a black man going to date their daughter, not if they had any power to prevent it" (210).
Dan-el's girlfriend is forced to break up with him because his parents don't approve her dating someone with dark skin.
Lens: Post Colonial
I think this introduces the post colonial lens since the memoirist is being viewed as an other due to his skin color. His ex girlfriend's parents don't want her to be with him because they think he is insubordinate, despite the fact that they both attend an Ivy League school. Surprisingly, this doesn't effect my memoirist in any way as he chooses to "play it off" rather than contemplate about it.
Question: Is your memoirist so used to being viewed as an other that it doesn't necessarily affect them anymore?
In my memoir, my memoirist is not used to being viewed as the other yet, she still tries to act normal whenever guests come over.
DeleteThis really interesting because it many cases most people don't "play it off". They take these judgments very seriously.
DeleteA section from my memoir that I believed was worth analyzing was when Callahan had the authority to tell a waiter what to get her and he obeyed her orders. This section of my memoir ties back to Judith Butler’s theory about gender. In society, men are seen to take initiative over things and is seen as having higher jurisdiction. However, in Brain on Fire, Callahan, the memoirist, is seen has having greater superiority because she is able to acquire the things she wants. In this scene, Callahan, being a female, portrays her feeling superior than those around her. This is the only time Callahan feels this way. She has felt this way for the first time because she has always had insecurities about her disease. Question: Is there a section in your book where your memoirist believes he/she has higher jurisdiction over others?
ReplyDeleteThere a passage in which my memoirist mentions that there are moments throughout his experience that he will never be able to forget about. Not just moment but also things that scared him for life. He will always associate smoke with the act of burning of bodies and also he will never forget that faces of children who he later saw turn into that smoke during late nights. This relates to Freud ideas since there are always certain memories in which one may have a hard time and cant forget about. Elie writes about these memories as a way to let things out but he knows he will never forget them.
ReplyDeleteQuestion: Does your author seem to have a solid memory of a specific moment he or she may never forget about?
Good question !
DeleteMy memoirist has been affected by the moment when she realized that prison is a place where rules are broken even between the guards which is insane. she recounts the moments when the officer leaves her and two other women outside the prison walls and in the streets. By this point she did not know what to do and was in shock.
a passage in my book Orange is the New Black explains how this post colonial theory is still persistent even in prison. Piper was getting many gifts from the outside world including money, food, and books. She had so books she felt as though other individuals might think she believes she is superior and more intelligent. this instils fear into her as the story progresses. this is a tad racist in a way on both ends. the black people may feel like she is being racist because she is white. Have you ever witnessed racism where a black person was racist to a white person?
ReplyDeleteIts crazy how even in prison, the whites are prioritized from other races. You would think that everyone would be treated "equally" whatever that means in prison since they are all felons but white supremacy is involved in everything.
DeleteBrain On Fire by Susannah Cahalan
ReplyDeleteDue to her disease, Susannah is unable to remember her past self and past memories. She does however have some recollections and snippets of memory although she feels emotionally disconnected to the Susannah she used to be. Freud states that memory is prone to distortion, therefore we remember things how we want to remember and perhaps even forget things because we want to forget them. We erase things that seem irrelevant and keeps those that hold personal significance. Perhaps Susannah kept snippets of small memories, however little, despite of the affects of her disease, because they held some value to the Susannah she used to be, she is still the same Susannah (with the exception of some chemical changes her disease might of caused), she still held a great portion of herself and who she is (for example, writing this book indicates her passion for writing is still intact) but although she might be the same person to some extent, she has to begin from scratch.
Does anyone else's character experience memory distortion?
Brain On Fire by Susannah Cahalan
ReplyDeleteWhen Susannah was with her boyfriend, she had the urge to either end her relationship with him, or to say that she loved him. She decided to say she loved him, despite that she may not have felt it. This largely might be because since she is a woman, because of the affects of society she feels like she needs a man to be with her, despite the fact this is isn't true. Women are constantly told, in money societies, that they need to procure a man and provide for him. This thinking is seen to be archaic by many, but it still prevalent regardless.
Has anyones family ever told them they need someone of the opposite sex?
Brain On Fire by Susannah Cahalan
ReplyDelete“I had lost confidence and a sense of self. Who am I? Am I a person who cowers in fear at the back of a spin class, avoiding everyone’s gaze? This uncertainty about who I am, this confusion over where I truly was in the time line of my illness and recovery, was ultimately the deeper source of the shame. A part of my soul believed that I would never be myself, the carefree, confident Susannah, again.”
Looking at this through the post colonial lens, it is obvious that the memoirist feels as if she is other due to her illness. People arent othering her, she is othering herself which is really interesting because she thinks that because of her disease her parents, friends and boyfriend don't want to be around her and that they don't like her, however its the exact opposite, her loved ones are always by her side no matter how hard she tries to separate herself from them. Even through all of her manic episodes nobody has given up on Susannah, her parents, and specially Stephen believe that the 'old' Susannah is still in there. Even though her parents and Stephen are not trying to other her, by believing that there is a old and new susannah bascially means that they are labeling the new susannah as the other.
Does anybody elses memoirist's family members feel like the memoirst is the other?
Orange is the New Black: My Year in a Women's Prison by Piper Kerman
ReplyDelete"The formal relationship, enforced by the [prison] institution, is that one person's word means everything and the other's means almost nothing."
Post colonial is a persistent theory in prison. When you are in prison you lose your voice, what ever the guard says you'll have to do. Lets say you chose not to do, then you will be punished severely. One person can command the other to do anything, and refusal will result into 'physical restraints.' What is strange though is that some members that function the corrections facilities posses power greater than other inmates. They can too say and chose their preference, such as in roommates. However, don't the prisoners have a right to speak against power [guards]? Or is it that when you enter within the walls of prison you lose whatever right you attained throughout your life? Unfortunately there is inequality between the relationship with the colonizers, prison guards, and the one's being colonized, inmates. The prisoners are the 'other' even if they all resemble one another.
Question: In Prison do you feel like your memoirist would be 'other'... an inmate, guard, or fictional worker?
Undocumented By: Dan-el Padilla
ReplyDeleteIn the book it speaks on a moment when Dan-el is accepted into Princenton University and some of the private school brats in his school, Collegiate, think he got into because he's an illegal immigrant. Dan-el is infruriated because he believes he worked hard to be in the position he holds.
Has someone ever used your background as a way to justify who you are or whay you have accomplished?
This is an important observation. I rember that the exact langague his bratty class mate used was "affirmative action". It is horrible becase its reducing Dan-el to his complextion, and while his ethnicity and socio-economic statuts does play some role into how he got into Collegiate for free, he had to work twice as hard for the same oppertunity as that brat who accused Dan-el as an affirmative action kid.
DeleteUndocumented by Dan-el Peltra Padilla
ReplyDeleteLens: Post-Colonial
Once Dan-el is in Princeton, he begins to lust after girls in particular white girls. Whenever he would call his friend to talk the topic would always move to the topic of girls and Dan-el's friend would always give him shit for going after white girls. Since Dan-el is black, his friend accused him of betraying his race. This is interesting and relates to post-colonial because Dan-el is experiencing a conflict of identity. He is a black-Hispanic living in an institution were the majority of the students are white and rich. Dan-el claims to not have a preference, and that its just whoever he ends up liking. But it's hard to be completely exempt of hundreds of years worth of the white figure being the baseline for attraction. Is Dan-el actually that innocent or is he lying to him self about not having a preference? Is Dan-el responsible for having to date a black girl? Or should it not matter, Dan-el should like whoever he wants.