The Woman Warrior - DJ #1

The Woman Warrior - DJ #1

Quote 1:
"There were ghost plagues, bandit plagues, wars with the Japanese, floods. My Chinese brother and sister had died of an unknown sickness. Adultery, perhaps only a mistake during good times, became a crime when the village needed food." - page 13, paragraph 2, Maxine

Significance:
In Maxines (narrator) home country, it was a hard life. The Chinese culture had a lot of punishments and supperstitions realated to spiritual belifs and therefore had many restrictions on what and wasn't allowed to be done. This phrase above also tells me that adultery might had been only taken very seriously if or when a village or family was in need of money and food. In their need of food, the family might have used the excuse of adultery to raid someones house and steal their food or take their animals for food. Otherwise, the phrase above is telling me that they would not think to use this as an excuse to break into someones house, it would just mean that the person guilty of doing it would curse themselves and their family forever.

Personal Connection:
Well, here in the U.S, we have crimes such as adultery still going on and we have other terrible things happing due to sexual assult and it seemes as though it happened in China too.

Question 1:
From reading this first part of The Woman Warrior, do you think that the narrators (Maxine) aunt was raped? Because she states that her aunt always gave up her family for beauty and men, so I'm still wondering if she was that relentless as to what the consequences might have been.

Quote 2:
"The Chinese are always very frightened of the drowned one, whoese weeping ghost, wet hair hanging and skin bloated, waits silently by the water to pull down a substitute." - page 16, last paragraph, Maxine

Question 2:
So we are introduced to alot of the authors (Maxine) relatives in this first part of the sotry and I am still confussed wether or not her aunt (Aiaa pg, 13) drowned herself with the baby. Any thoughts on that?

Quote 3:
"I watched powerful men count their money, and starving men count theirs." - page 30, paragraph 3, Maxine

Significance:
In their home country, there is extreme poverty and even her family stuggled to make a substancial living, but it was even harder for them when the village people came and raided all of their belongings taking everything and destroying everything that was on their property. I thought that it was really cruel and unneccesary to sloughter all of their animals. It was hard making a living and so I think that this is why Maxine's family laster leaves for America. Along with the fact that her family is being split up to go fight in war in America.

Personal Connection:
All the time, there will be people who are wealthier than yourself, but we have to remember that there are always people who are struggling with extreme cases of poverty, and so it just reminds me how thankful I am to have a home, a fmily, an education, to have clothes on my back and much more. It just hurts me to think that there are people on the street trying to make a dollar go as far as they can, but in reality, things these days cost much more than just a dollar.

Question 3:
Do you think that Maxine really has enough self-control to hold herself back from going to help save her new husband and her brother? or will she go without considering what the old folks told her about waiting and not wasting the 7 1/2 years of her life training?

Vocab for DJ #1:
abhorrent (pg 11) - utterly opposed, or contrary, or in conflict
atavism (pg 12) - the reappearance in an individual of characteristics of some remote ancestor that have been absent in intervening generations
talisman (pg 13) - any amulet or charm
spasmodically (pg 14) - pertaining to or of the nature of a spasm
alighted (pg 24) - to settle or stay after descending
peony (pg 24) - any of various plants or shrubs of the genus Paeonia
self-immolation (pg 28) - voluntary sacrifice or denial of oneself
transmigration (pg 28) - the passage of a soul after death into another body

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Immigration Field Trip Reflection

Immigration Field Trip Reflection

PART I - From Heaven to Home:

In this exhibit, I was told more about Jewish history and their struggles to make a substancial life in America. In 1654, many Jews fled their hometowns due to violet attacks towards them, poor living conditions, and from Nazi prosecution. To get to America, most had to travel from Spain all the way to Portugal, then would get deported to South America where they later arrived in New York or 'Amsterdam'. Arriving, were 23 adults and children which later led the way for the many immigrants coming to America. Most Jews coming to America from the 1820's-1923, were mostly German and Austrian Jews. From the 1880's-1923, Eastern Europeans were fleeing from the Nazi prosecution.

When coming to America, the Jews began lived in small houses, housing as many people possible, and being put to work in jobs where they got very little pay. They Jews fought for equality for 122 years; from 1654-1776. At one point, General Grant attempeted to abolish all Jewsish people from the states of Kentucky and Tennessee but president Lincoln Refused. Once George Washington was the 1st American president, the 2 thousand Jews that were currently residing in America turned to George Washington to assure them that the goverment would protect religious liberty.

In 1790, president George Washinton stated, "Shall give to bigitry no sanction, to persecution no assistance." By the 1860's the Jews were still fighting for their religious rights and the Civil War broke out. By that time in history, 7 thousand Jews fought for thr north and liberty from slavery, while 3 thousand fought in the southern regions. I found out that Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel and Martin Luther King walked in the Cilvil Rights march together. For a long time, the poeple of the Jewish religion had to pay to be a part of the navy and army to fight for their country.

After many years, the had this rule abolished. Something else that facinated me, was hearing that 20 thousand Jewish woman broke into the butcher shops and tossed all of their meat into the streets. It surprised me when I heard that mostly woman were boy-cotting the butcher markets, because the kosher meats - which they were eating at the time - were doubled in price. After a few years, they finally dropped the price from 18 cents to 14 cents. Although it was not much, they were satisfied and the boy-cotting finally ended.

Slowly but surely, America was making process. In 1838, Rebecca Gratz founded the first sunday school and in 1841, the first Jew sat in congress. Also, in 1906, Oscur Stratus becames the first Jew to be a part of the U.S cabinet and to believe it or not, the Jews helped pineer most of the things that began America; such as theatre, rock and roll, and even hollywood. Jews were the bigginging of Las Vegas and were even a part of the first mafia.

Overall, I learned that without the Jewish people settling and immigrating to America, we wouldn't be the America that we are today. Without all their sacrifice and strive to make their new home country the best one, the America we live in now, would probably have more discrimination, more religious prosecutions, and a country without American theatre.

PART II - Children of Immigrants:

Quote:
"I believe as an individual I can help America achieve its goals. I remember last year I helped collect canned foods for the soup kitchen. Also I raised money when the Twin Towers fells. I believe things like this may seems little but can mout to larger and bigger things." -Zainab Sozzer, Pakistan

I choose this quote because it sends the message that even the smallest things make a difference. Wether it is helping someone up off the ground, to raising money and sending it to a charity, as long as we help one another out, then we will be passing on helping hands which we know America is known for.

Photograph:
I choose a phtograph that was taken in 2000 and that had two kids - both under the age of 7 or 6 - and riding one of those electronic elephant rides in Chinatown, New York. You could tell that they were both sibilings and that the younger one was clingging to his brothers weist. The first thing I saw were the expression on the kids eyes. They seemed very relaxed in the situation that they were in and I could see people waling by and little markets in the background which I interpurated as if the phtographer were trying to indicate that their life was speeding by but that they were lving in the monet, because their faces were completly focused.

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Immigration Reflection

Immigration Reflection

An immigrant is a person who enters a different country to reside in for many personal reasons. Some may include finding better job opportunities, living a more substantial life style, and/or possibly for relative needs. Some people grow up in a country that may not enforce the certain protection rights that they may want/need. Also, some people grow up believing in different beliefs, religious or non-religious and want to move to a country they believe will be accepting and/or recognizable. In some countries, there are social unrest religious persecutions going on and the person may feel unsafe and un-protected. In their country, their may be problems with sexual harassment and sexual discrimination against gay and lesbian rights. Also, there may be country disasters where the individual is feared for their life and belongings and would want to immigrate to a different country. Another reason an individual would want to reside in a different country, would be because of freedom of speech. Some countries don’t approve of their citizens speaking out against them and lock them up, torture them, kill them, or they disappear. In some countries, their punishment acts would be to cut off human limbs and torture the.

In the United Sates of America, all citizens’ are under the protection of the constitution and the bill of rights. Because of this, they are entitled to a free and appropriate public education, have the right to buy property, all citizens have the right to vote, and all of America’s citizens have the right to a fair and speedy trial under the law. They also have the right to public services such as the police, health care policies, and insurance.

Immigration has changed our country very much. We have added different language studies into the classrooms, we have different cultural events, and we allow people to gather as a group if they want to or they can do what they please. I believe that my life has been affected by immigration because I have been able to learn different languages and experience different experiences by taking trips to different cultural events around the city or being able to taste the different cultural foods. I think that my awareness for different cultures and traditions has really widened and opened up because I have been able to learn and be introduced to many different living styles.

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Immigration Reflection Questions -

Immigration Reflection Questions -

1) Whatis an immigrant?
2) What are some reasons an immigrant would want to leave their home country?
3) What does our country have to offer that other countries may not offer?
4) How has the US been affected with immigrantion? (culture, languange, food, laws, etc.)
5) How has your life changed due to immgrantion?

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The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down

The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down

The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down

Author ANNE FADIMAN
Reviewed by KATIE SILVERSTEIN

The book The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down, or in Hmong, quab dab peg, is the story of a special girl Lia Lee who happened to be the first of her 13 brothers and sisters to be born in a hospital. 3 days after she was born, on July 19 1982, and discharged from the hospital, she had to be admitted back because of a grand mal seizure. Her parents Foua and Nao Kao, are very spiritual people and believe, as many Hmong do, that even though a body may be lifeless, that persons soul continues to live on in the after life.

Taking place in Merced, California, the Lee family struggles to understand English and the doctors recommended dosages. The book was very detailed about the spiritual beliefs of the Hmong and how their culture thought about the American doctors and hospital treatments. Over and over again, the Lee family had to stay strong and make the right decisions that they thought were right for their daughter. Lia being the first child of Nao and Foua, must’ve been a real tough decision to make because of their spiritual beliefs and what the Hmongs thought of the American culture and people.

Nao Kao and Foua never left their daughters side in the hospital and always had faith that their daughters soul would live on forever. Just the thought of having my own epileptic child and putting myself in Nao and Foua’s shoes made me so grateful to be healthy. This was a hard time for the Lee’s and even harder because they couldn’t understand the language and what medicine the doctors wanted to give to their daughter. I can’t even imagine what Foua and Nao had to go through yet I felt bad for Lia while reading this book because her health was affected by her diagnoses of epilepsy.

This book really opened my eyes to the struggles that many families have to go through for their loved ones health. To learn some history of the Hmong culture and how they left for Laos and some to America, it was very inspirational to see such a spiritual family go through such hard times and yet still stay strong and love each other no matter what, it was very touching and hit me very hard.

To me, the authors’ style of writing was by information she was able to get from the family and from research. She sounded like she really knew a lot about the Hmong culture and the history of the Hmong. I recommend this book to people who enjoy learning about different cultures and differently medical terms. It felt to me as though it was more of a medical and cultural book and felt as though I couldn’t get as much out of it as perhaps an older and more mature person might. I recommend this book to the age group of 20’s or pre adults and higher and preferably from my experience, to many middle scholars or high scholars because of their maturity level.

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