Recitatif by Toni Morrison

“Recitatif” by Toni Morrison

The story written by Toni Morrison was very sympathy to me. It was about the two girls of different colors who have met at the orphan hostel; St. Bonny’s. They were the only ones who were dumped by their parents, lived at St. Bonny at the early age of eight. One day their mothers visited them. Twyla hated the way her mother acted and wore. Twyla's mother Mary is dressed inappropriately. Roberta’s mother wore a big cross on her big chest.

Eight years later, Twyla and Roberta meet again at Twyla’s workplace; Howard Johnson. Roberta was married to a rich man who is IBM executive and Twyla was married to a firefighter. Twyla is regarded as the low- middle class. While having a chat with Twyla, they both wanted to share a funny story about their lives at St. Bonny, the silly girls and Maggie. Roberta was insisting her that Maggie was black and Twyla didn’t forget a single thing. She remembered all the things. She wasn’t. But in the end, Roberta realized that she was not black. Their conversation is sympathetic.

I noticed in the story that Twyla’s mother was about to shake hands with Roberta’s mother but Roberta’s mother resisted, saying nothing. The racial issues increase, at the same time as the two characters start recollecting the incident in St. Bonaventure’s shelter where they’ve lived for a while - Maggie, kitchen worker, either was pushed down or fell down in the orchard. Roberta and Twyla used to play, talk and sleep together no matter of the skin color issues. Later, Roberta was confused about the color of Maggie because she was concerned about her disability, not her skin color. This is a never-ending story; Christmas is a sign of the birth of new relationships and experiences, but racial subjects remain the same.

This is a good start for the people who have experienced racism. It helped them to realize that socializing with other color group would help them reduce the racial issues rather living in their own houses.

Zelzah by Norma Fox Mazer

Zelzah: A Tale From Long Ago By Norma Fox Mazer

Zelzah lived in Poland with her 5 sisters. Zelzah was the second oldest of five daughters. Her mother strongly believed the different names of her daughters made an impact on their lives. Aelzah means Shade-in-the-Heat. All the sisters hated sharing a big bed. They wanted to have own beds but couldn’t afford to buy. They were poor.

At the age of nine, Zelzah worked on the farm and did some duties for the old people who could not do their duties in the house. She was paid low-wage. Her parents wanted her to get a good husband but her sister, Shulamith wanted to get married too. Later Aunt Hannah, Zelzah’s mother’s own sister, sent Zelzah’s parents a letter saying that Aunt Hannah got four sons; one of them got married to American girl. Other one of her sons, Jack needed a wife. So Hannah wanted to ask her parent if Zelzah could get married to Jack so she came to America to stay with them. Later on, Jack got her girlfriend pregnant which sent Zelzah to live somewhere on her own. She went to the school and work. She sent money to her family so that Shulamith came to join her in USA. Shulamith got married off to a man.

Later on her parents died in Poland. She was finding difficult to live in USA. She thought of getting married better off and wanted to have some happiness in her life but could not achieve her dream. She was comparing alot from her home country, Poland and US. Her life was simple in Poland rather than in US.

Little Saigon by David St. John

Little Saigon by David St. John

The story is about the two sisters and their mother. Their father was a Buddhist who died. They are planning to leave their own place of murders, the old police and mothers’ friends in search of a better place to live. They wanted to leave France for United State. Ngoc Be and Mai Chi were boarded the boat separately from their mother by Jack Pirate.

On the boat voyage, the man did not give water and food to the two sisters and planned to have sex with Ngoc Be for few weeks. Sailors from the fishing ship found them and lock the Jack Pirates. Sailors took them and shipped to Little Saigon, California in America. They were waiting for their mother but she didn’t come. She died in the sea by the storm that made the boat overbroad.

Their Aunt Kahnh , their mother’s sister, heard this and came to take the two sisters from Saigon and went back to Paris. They were able to take care of them. The two sisters looked at the painting and remembered about their mother. They felt that mother was telling them that she was finally safe but Mai Chi whispered to Ngoc Be that they were finally safe too.

I feel pity on them because they lost their loved one, mother. I am hoping that they are going to have better future. They get good education and better job and get married to a good family.

The Setting Sun and the Rolling World by Charles Mungoshi

The Setting Sun and the Rolling World by Charles Mungoshi

The story is about an old man named Musoni who spent a lot time tilling on his land. He wished that the rain would come soon to make his land wet. His son, Nhamo came to talk with his dad. He wanted to share a message with his son. Musoni is concerned about him, his education and his life when he grows up.
Nhamo said to his biological father, “The land is overworked and gives nothing now. And the family is broken up.” It means that he felt that the land is not very useful now. Musoni has been spending a lot of time working on the land for food for his families. It took long time to produce the food enough for their family. Now it was hard for food to grow on the land especially during the dry weather. Therefore,Nhamo's father was upset with him because Nhamo is planning to leave the world; his family, his land, his own house for a better life. He was disappointed with his son that he wanted to leave home to journey to find a new life. Musoni tried to explain the importance of the land, his ancestors, his house, his culture, his family. He really appreciated the ancestor for giving him a place to live.
I feel sympathy toward old Musoni because his son was leaving him to live somewhere. He really wanted his son to understand his emotions toward the importance of the land. I would like to share a short message with the breadwinners who worked on the land to get the income. I would like farmer to keep the culture of using the land as their only source of income. Land is the greatest gift given to us from God. The land has a numerous of reasons to use for survival. The land is free. It does not limit our wants and needs.

On the Rainy River by Tim O’Brien

On the Rainy River by Tim O’Brien

The story is about a man named Tim who kept a painful secret for many years from his family, relatives and friends. When Tim was 21 years old, he was drafted to fight an American war in Vietnam as a soldier. He was reserved to fight the people in Vietnam. He hated his job because he didn’t know what the main reason was for fighting in Vietnam. He saw a full shed of blood everywhere. He also killed the people without knowing what the system look alike in Vietnam. This secret he had not shared with his family has made him very disgusting and rage because he did not want his family to be upset and spoiled.

He wanted to have a confession for this mistake but he hardly finds it. One day, he went to his work, he used to clean the blood out from the inside of the pigs with the water gun. The fluids splashed everywhere even on Tim’s body. He found this very disgusting and made him remembering his job to kill the people in Vietnam. He left his work and went to the Rainy River where there was a beautiful lake adjacent to Canada. He spent his days at Tip Top Lodge and he met the old man there. He was very satisfied with him because he offered accommodation for him and took him out for a lake view. He planned to suicide himself but couldn’t. The environment and the landscape of the Rainy River have made Tim feel relaxing and keep away from his worries. Finally, he was survived but he felt like a coward because he went to the war. He went back home.

I was very sad with his secret. He should’ve shared his secret with his families and church advisors who can help him solve his problem. If I had a killing-secret, I would share with my adults who could help me find a way to confessing and forgetting what I was doing in the past. This same kind of experiences had happened to some of the soldiers whose job is to kill the enemies.

Beautiful & Cruel By Sandra Cisneros/ Trip in a Summer Dress by Annette Sanford

Beautiful & Cruel By Sandra Cisneros

The story is about a daughter that nobody likes just because she is ugly. She always wanted to be pretty so that any man will fell in love with her, get her married and live off better in their own house. She thought about this fact through the movies which she saw that the beautiful girls have the power to laugh the men away.

I feel very sorry about not only this ugly girl but beautiful girls too because ugly girls wanted to be beautiful and get married quickly and beautiful girls do not want to get married earlier. Beautiful girls have to power to decide for themselves. It means they could cruelly reject the men’s requests for them for marriage. Good body appearance is not important to me because I was made from God. God is the one who made all different shapes including ugly and beautiful people. To respect others is the only way to the understanding of people’s struggle.

Trip in a Summer Dress by Annette Sanford

Annette Sanford is a single mother of Matthew but nobody knows this as a secret except her mother. Sanford’s mother told all the friends that her mother was pregnant again. Sanford was young and she studied all night. Mother insisted that she was to act as Matthew’s elder sister. She was going to the Eureka Springs to get married with Richard without him knowing that Matthew was her son. Annette thought and thought that this task was very difficult for her because she could not take care much of her son. She did not want to tell her son that she was her mother; she wanted him to grow and get married without knowing that even when he dies.

About the summer dress, it was too late for her to wear the summer dress because the place she was going to was cold in the month of October. While in the bus, she thought and thought about Matthew so much because she wanted to take her son with her but she couldn’t. I know that this kind of experience happens to many single mothers around the world. This is because of most men who are going to marry single mothers are not accepting the child that is not his own blood. Single mothers usually keep this as a secret for her good future when married off to a good man.

Bias and Language

I am going to write some of my personal experiences that are related to the bisas in language and how Language has Power and Privilege.
Both of my parents own a piece of property of houses and land. Most renters are calling them as “landlord”. Sometimes when my father is not at home and is out of business property, one of the renters called my mother about rent issues. Renter asked her if landlord is there or not. It seems like renter thinks that my mom is not like a landlord but a landlady because renter’s thoughts are different; some thinks man has power to control the property than women. Other article I have selected from a short story. It is a short sentence showing that it has language bias. “Not a man’s house. Not a daddy’s. A house all my own” .It seems like that the author used to call her father as a man not her mother as a woman because he/she may said that because the house was the owner of her/his dad. In most families, fathers are the breadwinner so that they take the authorization of the house mostly than mothers.

English is Androcentric because it has a built-in bias toward means. The use of many words relating to the women made by male such as babe, honey, pussy, hole, beauty etc. Language was built by men because society was controlled by men and it is ‘The People with the Power’ in society who can build their reality, their point of view into the language. Long time ago, women were not educated and they were not the influential politicians, teachers, philosophers, public speakers, writers or linguists. Fat people, skinny people, people with disability, racial groups like white and black are some of the groups of people who are underrepresented in English. Yes, people do even notice that English is biased. Other serious problem is racial bias in the language. That is half the problem people rarely noticed the prejudice unless it affects them so they carry on using language that is racist or sexist. About the thought and language debate, some say thought is governed by language; some say language is governed by thought. Yes, language can affect our thinking. There is of course an alternative argument. Conceptual primes may have made us all shape our language similarly but these languages could still play a part in and affect our thoughts. Linguists believe that though and languages are ‘interdependent’. The language has some control over our thoughts because it is so powerful like oratory or rhetoric. Speakers use words along with music and visuals for effective advertising. It is one of the techniques speaker do use in advertising. Euphemism is the word that presents their unpleasant subject in a favorable light. These are used by media, politicians and other people in power to manipulate the way they present info e.g. freedom fighter.

Dawn by Tim Wynne-Jones

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The story was talking mainly about Barnsey’s trip to North Bay from Ottawa, Canada for Christmas time with his dad and grandmother. In a cold weather, his mother dropped him at the bus station for the bus. This is where he met Dawn in the bus. Barnsey and Dawn talked mainly about the song tapes and the cassettes. Some few hours later, the bus suddenly stopped somewhere due to the road snow blockages. So they and other passengers got off and stayed at a restaurant for a while. It seems likes that Barnsey started to like Dawn because she was making a lot of funny stories to him. She was using the word ‘rubbish’ which made him laughing.

He was thirteen of age like he was already a matured teenager because he was expressing some feeling for Dawn who was assumedly twenty. One day Barnsey was planning to visit her in Vancouver. But in the end, his father listened to the tape unknowing that he was going to Vancouver to meet Dawn.

While reading this story, I see that his parents are probably separated or divorced. “Barnsey expected that they are planning to look for other partners. I feel sorry for Barnsey because he loves mother so much as well as his father. He was looking sad because his parents won’t tell him what was happening between them. But he wished that his parents would tell him what the wrong was with his parents and he was not sure if he could visit her mother again in the future.

In the world, many children experienced this problem the same thing because they are finding difficult to live with either one of the parents rather than living with both of them. The children who experience this same thing are encouraged to focus on their education first as this will help secure them a better future and their families.