The Bridegroom

The Bridegroom by Ha Jin, like many other stories we've read recently, focuses on human relationships and the overarching power that the politics and culture put on individuals.

The story starts with the narrator talking about his adopted daughter, Beina, whose father was an old friend of his who had passed away. Beina, short, squat, and homely, was not exactly a shining beauty. The narrator was surprised when a handsome man, Baowen, proposed to her and married her soon thereafter.

A funny quote from the story happened when the speaker was describing Braowen as "well educated-a middle school graduate" (page 92). This just shows the cultural difference between the United States and China. There, being a middle school graduate was quite the accomplishment, when in America it's certainly a given.

When it turns that Baowen is a homosexual, the narrator didn't even know how to react. He'd "heard that term before but didn't know what it meant exactly. Seeing many of us puzzled, Chief Miao explained, it's a social disease, like gambling, prostitution, or syphilis" (page 95). This furthered on what we talked about in class today. China's censorship of things for their citizens really extended to cover a lot. They can't research many topics thoroughly, and are so censored that they don't even properly know what homosexuality is, thinking of it as a disease.

This censorship includes elements of brainwashing. Chief Miao even tells the speaker that "homosexuality originated in Western capitalism and bourgeois lifestyle", which of course has no substance or concrete backing (page 96).

They even go as far as trying to treat the homosexuality in a mental care facility. They make Baowen undergo electric shock treatment which obviously isn't going to do anything towards his sexual preferences. One of the doctors finally admits to the speaker that homosexuality is indeed not a disease, but rather a preference. The speaker is, of course, shocked by this new found knowledge.

I did find it interesting that Beina really didn't mind having a gay husband. She viewed the entire relationship as very platonic, seeing advantages for both sides in getting married without including a physical relationship.

After Cowboy Chicken Came to Town

Well after realizing I initially blogged on the wrong story today, here goes my second blog in one day, woohoo!

So this blog is about the story, After Cowboy Chicken Came to Town, by Ha Jin. The story follows suit to many of our recent readings, talking about relationships between people and the clashing of cultures. This story does a particularly humorous job of intersecting American and Chinese cultures that ends up creating a very entertaining story.

One of the first things I noticed was how the boss, an American man, took to being lazy when things became successful. "At first Mr. Shapiro worked hard, often staying around until we closed at ten-thirty. But as the business was flourishing, he hung back more and stayed in his office for hours on end, reading newspapers and sometimes chewing on a skinny sausage wrapped in cellophane" (page 190). This, to me, showed the stereotypical American dream. Make money, get rich, and be lazy. This is so against the stereotypical Chinese culture of keeping your nose to the grindstone to get success.

Particularly funny to me was how they hosted a wedding banquet at the restaurant. A couple had decided to marry, and "wanted something exotic for their wedding dinner, so he picked Cowboy Chicken" (page 199). The thought of someone having an "exotic" dinner at someplace like a Kentucky Fried Chicken was very funny for me, and certainly showed differences in culture.

Another more serious matter involved the relationships between men and women. In America, romance and relationships can be wild and sporadic, while in Chinese culture they seem much more orderly. This is certainly shown by the boss when he "grasped her wrist and called her "Honey" (page 206). To the Chinese folks, this seemed like a grand offense worthy of the police, but in America it would be more of just a creepy situation.

The whole issue of wastefulness is also tackled in the story. Americans are shown in the story, and I would say it's definitely true, to bed incredibly wasteful. When they could be giving the leftover chicken away, Peter was taking it out and burning it in the dirt. They make claims later that it will eventually lead to less waste, but that is all just ridiculousness.

Finally, I thought the last part was particularly funny. When the boss took the workers' note as them threatening to bomb the fast food joint, it exemplified what the story was all about: 2 different cultures having troubles getting along and having trouble understanding each other.

Orbiting

This blog's all about the story, Orbiting, by Bharah Mukherjee. After reading another short story by her last week, I was interested to see how this story would relate, if at all, to the previous story. Both stories turned out to be strong commentaries on relationships and different cultures.

I looked up a few vocabulary words during my reading to get a better understanding of the story. First off, lasciviously means inclined to lustfulness. Next, poignant means strongly distressing to the feelings. Finally, holism can be defined as the theory that whole entities, as fundamental components of reality, have an existence other than as the mere sum of their parts.

The story starts with the narrator, Renata, preparing for Thanksgiving dinner with her family. She immediately alludes to a past relationship with Vic, so one can surmise that relationships are going to be a strong focus in the story. Renata's parents are also quickly described to start off the story.

One quote I liked was when Renata speaks that "Mom has the simple, immigrant faith that children should do better than their parents, and her definition of better is comfortingly rigid" (page 58). I think this can be related to by many families. The parents work hard to bring their family into the prosperous land of America. Now that they're in the land of the American dream, the parents really see no reason why their children can't surpass them in terms of monetary value and success.

I also liked the quote, "Grumbling and scolding are how we deMarcos express love" (page 58). I can say that this often holds true in my family. My father especially is quick to point out the mistakes that I tend to make. Ultimately, though, this is done to help me out in the future.

A lot of the commentary by Renata is about her thoughts on being with Vic. She often refers to things with him in the present tense, then switches to the past tense in realization that she is no longer with him. For example, she says that "he isn't good with directions that come in four languages. At least he wasn't" (page 61). Anyone who's been in a long relationship can certainly understand these emotions. After being attached to one person for a long period of time, your thoughts become often centered around them. When they leave suddenly, it's hard not to include them in your thought processes.

I like the perspective on America Ro gives the story. Ro describes America as a more chaotic place than many would describe it, talking of sudden raids, papers, detention centers, etc. While Renata comes from a fairly stable background, Ro comes from a much rougher past, including scars received from jailtime in Afghanistan during torture.

I thought the interactions between Renata's father and Ro were particularly humorous. A middle eastern man conversing and trying to relate with a very politically conservative man generally calls out for humor. My grandfather was the stereotypical republican, so imagining him talking to Ro was how I envisioned the father in the story. Two completely different mindsets on politics and two completely different kinds of backgrounds makes for some awkward conversations.

Finally, I do think it's rather sad how people, including myself, often judge people too quickly when they're not the norm. Renata talks of Ro: "He's sophisticated, he could make monkeys out of us all, but they think he's a retard" (page 72). I think in general people need to open up their minds to accept people from all kinds of cultures and see what they can learn from different kinds of people.

A Wife's Story

Well it's been a while since I blogged. We'll see how spring break affects my writing skills. I'm writing now about the short story, "A Wife's Story," by Bharati Mukherjee.

First off, I'll go ahead and list a few words that I looked to help clarify some things in the story. The first word, Magyar, is a word for a member of an ethnic group coming from Hungary. Next, zamindar is a landlord required to pay a land tax to the government. Finally, flautist it turns out, is just another word for flutist.

So, A Wife's Story is in fact a story about a wife. The wife, a lady from India, starts off her story by commenting how she wishes to write David Mamet. The speaker and a fried of hers, Imre, are watching the play Glengarry Glen Ross, and she becomes infuriated at the crass nature Mamet gives to minorities. The short story, which is all about the clashing and blending of different cultures, shows that the minorities do in fact have feelings and thoughts separate from the general American stereotype. I really liked when the speaker says "I don't hate Mamet. It's the tyranny of the American dream that scares me. First, you don't exist. Then you're invisible. Then you're funny. Then you're disgusting" (page 26).

This quote really stood out to me as important. Generally, it is fairly true of how Americans more or less treat minorities. The author does a good job of summing up this harsh treatment of minorities in one succinct statement there.

Imre, though, tells her she needs to "let go a bit" on page 28. Perhaps he has a point, since there are many successful people who are minorities in America today. Everyone gets made fun of to some extent, so maybe people need to just simmer down and not take insults and generalizations personally.

The rest of the story really showed the stark contrast between different cultures. Examples of the cultural shift between America and other countries are abundant, including Charity. "Here, she's a model with high ambitions. In India, she'd be a flat chested old maid" (page 30).

I also found it humorous when the speaker's husband visits her in America and explores the various eateries and entrees that America has for him to satisfy his tastes. Everything comes off as rather bland, though, so he carries around a bottle of red peppers.

The speaker also becomes much more guilty feeling when he comes to town. In America she gets the sense of free love being given and received, while in India things seem much more formal. When her husband comes to visit, she takes on a bit of the formalness again and begins to feel more guilt concerning her infidelity.

The Stones of Summer

So, in class today we watched a documentary about an avid reader who is searching for the author of his favorite book entitled The Stones of Summer, who disappeared after writing this one novel. The novel is essentially unheard of, so Mark, the narrator, is faced with the problem of having no good way to locate the author. Also, since the book was written in 1972 and only one review was written about it, this complicates things further.

Since Mark feels so connected to the story, he feels obligated to find the author and talk to him about the wonderful novel he wrote. The novel gives him a sense of nostalgia, bringing him back to the days of his youth and how books changed who he was as a person. As a younger man, Mark admits to not knowing much about who he was, but instead remembers more the books he read. I feel like this helps show how books thoroughly shaped who he has become as an adult.

I also really liked how he mentioned that nowadays people spend so much more time on the computer and the internet and less time reading books. I think this speaks volumes on the lack of imagination that has become more and more prevalent in today's society. As a child, Mark describes how he would sit in the paperback bookstore for long periods at a time, drinking in all the stories and letting his imagination run wild. In today's society, however, video games and television seem to be the normal activities of any kid.

Mark uses reading even in his present life to cope with reality. He seems to have a stressful job that takes up a lot of his time. He counters this stress with delving into a good story and releasing all of his anxieties he faces in his every day life. Some people crack open a beer and mindlessly watch television, but Mark does something that relaxes him and works his brain at the same time.

So the documentary segment for the Wednesday class ends with Mark still searching for the author of The Stones of Summer. I just wonder what Mark will do if and when he meets this author. Will he be so surprised at actually finding him that he won't know what to say? Or will he be prepared for the moment and have a great conversation with the man? Either way, it should make for a very interesting situation to see what kind of life lessons and emotional impact Mark can draw from the author of this mysterious book.

Final Reading of The Same River Twice

In this final section of Chris Offutt's memoir, Chris comes to terms of where his wanderings across America have led him, and he also faces the reality of having a child.

First off, I'll throw in a few words I looked up to help me understand the reading. Scow is defined as any of various vessels having a flat-bottomed rectangular hull with sloping ends, built in various sizes with or without means of propulsion, as barges, punts, rowboats, or sailboats. Transient was another word, and it means not lasting, or transitory. Finally, lulling means to soothe or quiet.

Offutt at the beginning of this section meanders down to Florida, where he gets a job at a park in the everglades. The park, as described by Offutt, was less than stellar to be sure. He describes as being bitten by mosquitoes an average of "one hundred and fifty bites per day. [He] soon developed something of an immunity" (page 158).

Offutt describes the work at the everglades to be fairly dehumanizing. He says that "we were de-evolved humans who'd chosen proximity to the foundations of our existence...the glades were America's version of the French Foreign Legion, and the meager pay kept us all locked in harness" (page 160). The simple and harsh nature of living at The Flamingo brings Offutt a lot closer to man's primitive state of life. The food is bad, the work is rough, but Offutt pulls off a living none the less.

Soon a hurricane comes to hit Florida. As the hurricane approaches, Offutt spends some time pondering what his journeys have meant to him. Offutt writes that "years ago, I'd left Kentucky and set into motion a pattern of repetitive exile that had ended by droppping me into a rapidly sinking swamp.I had entered the world to become a man and wound up truly caring about very little. Most of my life had been a sequence of halfhearted attempts at self destruction...Now I faced a worthy death" (page 169). This quote stood out to me as being pretty important. Throughout all of Offut's travels, he realized that he ultimately had grown to care less and less about most things in life. Offutt, through a path of various odd jobs, had ended up in the foul existence of the swamp, and thought he had reached the bottom. He figures since he's dropped this low, he might as well experience a worthy death by a mighty hurricane.

Also, speaking of the mighty hurricane, I thought Offutt did a great job describing how he saw the hurricane through his eyes. He writes that "the wind slowed as Jacob's tentacle followed its spiral path" (page 171). I just liked how the word tentacle was incorporated in describing the hurricane.

Chris, now unsure of what to do next in life, quits his job. After a few months he meets his future wife, Rita. He considers following suit to his old pattern of life and leaving, but she convinces him otherwise. After moving into a house by the river, Offutt writes, "I had my goddess. I had my temple. The prairie spread in every direction" (page 177). Offutt finally finds something to keep him in one place-a companion. Life is hard to go through alone, with nobody there to be able to share all your feelings with. This may be one underlyinig reason why Offutt was so frustrated with his traveling life; he had nobody to share his experiences with. That's why he wrote everything in his journal, he felt a need to express himself somehow.

The Same River Twice Part Dos

Offutt begins this section of reading discussing his uncertainty of his wife's pregnancy. He really wants the child to be healthy and have a good upbringing, and he's worried how he potentially will have to take care of the child at home. This contrasts greatly with his thoughts and actions in his youth, where he would move with seemingly not a care in the world. I think as people age and face more responsibility, uncertainty and worry happens more naturally, it just comes down to how you deal with every situation.

After talking about his wife for a few pages, I love how Offutt opens up the stories of his youth again. He says, "The guts of America unfolded in every direction as I traveled down the interstate bloodstream, dodging the white corpuscles of perverts, cops, and outlaws" (page 59). This goes along with Offutt's many other great descriptions that I've already noticed in the book. He makes comparisons to two things that you normally would not associate with, giving the writing a much more original feel.

Another quote I liked was when he described his father's greatest fear as "duplicating Caesar's deathbed epiphany, and each of us was a potential Brutus, Judas, or Delilah" (p. 60). I liked this quote because Offutt could have simply just said his father was dreadfully suspicious of his family, but instead he used both secular historical as well as Biblical examples to really put true feeling into what his father was dealing with.

This whole reading really focused on Offutt gaining new experiences that he had never experienced before. There was some good insightful thoughts, and some very humorous situations. I thought it was very funny when he was about to jump out of the plane and he writes that "ten million years of genetic conditioning screamed in outrage and protest" (page 64). Just the next page, though, his friend Bill has killed himself by drinking and torching himself with kerosene, showing the fragility of the human condition.

Even in his life with his wife, Offutt experiences new things. For instance, him changing a diaper was worse for him than seeing heroin addicts or even "the chilling aftermath of a gunshot wound" (page 75). Really, we're always experiencing new things, no matter how old we get. The younger you are, the more new things you're generally going to experience, but that doesn't mean that this experiencing of new things will stop when you get old. There's always more to learn.

I thought it was interesting when Offutt describes Al talking of judgement and damnation then having Winner talk of death and destruction as well. He writes that, "maybe he and Winner were both correct-the world was doomed to extinction" (page 84). I think this part showed that when people are faced with uncertainties, such as the future, they become desperate and search in vain for answers or at least try to try to prepare themselves for the uncertainties that are to come.