Eating Organic Really Is Cool :)

The article "When eating organic was totally uncool" by Pha Lo, is a recollection of the author's experience as a child being apart of the fist generation of Hmongs in America. Because of their background, her family, including others in the small Hmong-like community, had to resort to an organic lifestyle for survival as they were scared for their safety being among "Americans" as they became targets of a failed secret war.

Her ultimate goal is to expose the absurdity of society's urban obsession with eating organically as she despised it growing up. In this work, the author gives a recollection of the simplicity of this hipster lifestyle which has now become a global phenomenon because of its purity and the good it does for your body; also because it is accessible to all social classes, from people who eat this way as a means of survival and to rich old "white" ladies at farmer's markets who wants to "boast about their eggs in their backyards, or how much their garden looks like the one on the White House lawn" (Lo, 2011).

Lo, creates a contrast between the misery she felt growing up and having to live that lifestyle but now being so proud of her family for being proficient in the field of producing organic food that they could eventually profit off of it. This article gives us insight to the writer's childhood and the struggle she felt having to cope with wanting so much to become someone else but she eventually becomes understanding because she somewhat becomes apart of the crowd.

I think many could benefit off of educating themselves about organic food and to engage in this lifestyle. Some organic diets can actually energize one's body and in the long-run, positive results will show in eating healthy.

"A Small Place"

Behind the Scenes of a small place

The essay "A Small Place" by Jamaica Kincaid explores the faults in a government system through the experiences of a tourist on the island of Antigua. The author uses satire as a mechanism to provide background information to all the things a new comer would see and experience (enjoy) but at the same time trying to highlight all the historical content a new comer is never mindful of.

The focus of the piece is to acknowledge all the contributing factors of a corrupted government which has led to the state which the country has been left in. She explains that every Antiguan knows that the country is doomed and the politicians knows it, where in her introduction she writes "wonder why a Prime Minister would want an airport named after him-why not a school," (Kincaid,3). She elaborates on the fact that the people of Antigua receives no support from their leaders but that their only aim is to gain profit from them. The schools are not treated as facilities that could eventually better the country, instead all the countries resources are poured into the tourism industry. The government encourages car loans for "brand new cars driven by people who nay or may not have really passed their driving test" in order to set up a stable transportation system for tourists (Kincaid,7). More example of this backwards government system was evident on page eight where she writes "when the Minister of Health himself doesn't feel well e takes the first plane to New York to see a real doctor" but at the same time these ministers refuse to recruit fitting and able doctors for its country.

In "A Small Place" after exposing the history behind each experience that a tourist would have in Antigua, Kincaid writes "but you are just a tourists" giving the impression that outsiders do not really care to know the history behind suffrage nor do they often get a chance at acknowledging it but in fact they only care about how good of a vacation this tropical destination will yield. I think the relativity of her diction was to show that in her country tourists get to experience "paradise" but are not very mindful of all the factors needed to enable this experiences. She also wants to show that there is always a story behind whatever you see even though you might not be aware. 

Coming to America

We recently watched a symposium in  my Enoisy 1010 class of an African writer, Chimanda Ngonzi Adichie, who spoke about the evolution of herself as a writer. She begun with a story of always wanting to be a writer but the only pieces that she could produce was ones who's characters were "foreign". They were white with blue eyes and always drank ginerbeer; as her young mind may have thought that the "white" race was the only ones deserving of a story. She had never read novels with characters other than caucasian at that age but discovering African novels changed her life as a writer.

She became fascinated with African books as if it was a "new world", ironically seeing that she was still living in Africa at the time, she became addicted with finding out more about the people around her. She now saw variety in literature and wanted to explore it.

The most interesting part of her presentation was the telling of her experiences in college concerning her background and how this negativity helped shape her mind as a writer. Her roommate was shocked to see an African similar to herself. The roommate had stereotypes of what an African should be like which did not include an African being clean, well educated such as herself and not having a poverty-stricken background.

Living with her college roommate was not the only stereotypical experiences that she encountered. Her english professor criticized her papers keeping in mind her culture. The stories that she created had characters much like himself and so he deemed them not being " African authentic ".

The problem with stereotypes is that they confine a certain type of people to one story which does not leave much room for variety. People of this society that interact with the influence of stereotypes such as her roommate and her English professor are ignorant to the richest of different cultires that they could be exposed to.

The general idea about Africans is that they are poor, dark ( soul) people who solely endures sufferage. Adichie found it suprising that the people in her field of work thought that writing about their struggles was the only way to be successful. The issue with this is that she had never experienced any " real" struggle. 

Curious Caroline

Both the graphic narrative and the graphic novel of the story "Caroline" written by Neil Gaiman but later adapted and illustrated by P. Craig Russel; follows the experience of a young who's curiosity leads her on an adventure to a parallel universe. 

It was interesting to observe the difference in the way the creators of each piece told the story in their own style. Reading the graphic I noticed that Gaiman's piece was more verbose and detailed, as needed to provide imagery for the reader. In general reading a novel depends mostly on how good of an inference the reader makes in order to properly follow the story line. It was a better experience for me reading the graphic narrative, Russel created images that forced the reader's mind to pay attention to certain details he thought the author intended to be noticed.

Reading the graphic narrative after the graphic novel helped me to understand the text better and cleared up any questions or misunderstandings I had about it; that is, if I had read a paragraph wrong or was unsure of the author's message; there was a picture there to clear it up.

The Cancer of our Society is Still Undefeated.

A brilliant exert of the "journal-entry style" novel by Bell Hooks, "Remembered Rapture -Class and politics of Writing", displays the hardship of the writer endured in finding a publishing agency that would support her work and its content.

Its overall aim was to outline the guidelines of self expression (in a writer's world), that is how it may be received if it includes arguments that challenge the "status quo" where the "wrong" way of voicing one's opinion may default a process of self-isolation especially from one's family.

She focuses on minorities being unable to freely express their selves and their nature in a literary way, specifically black women and lesbians but still she mentions Latinos and other races and groups of our society that has and are being oppressed. Her dialect (Style of writing) led me to believe that that the piece of work was written around forty or fifty years ago which in turn convinced my fellow classmates to believe that she was merely seeking pity a subject that has been played out, that is "Racism Doesn't Really Exist Anymore".

I for one count disagree with this argument as i believe that racism is still very current in today's society with experience of my own being a victim of racism. Just imagine if you could attending a "black school" in a "black community" and still being subjected to this hateful act because of the color of your skin or your culture. Just imagine if you can actually feeling awkward taking a drive out to Long Island, NY without the ever occurring stares and that feeling of not belonging. Just think, Why is it that there is such a great significance in social barriers. Think for example about the "ghetto", why is there only certain type of people, specifically races that are found there? I am not sure of the specifics but I am pretty sure the percentage of whites in a 'ghetto" is very low. 

This mountainous hurdle hinders our society and in many cases only places power in  certain groups of people, depending the situation. This power may also include the exclusion of "whites" on behalf of the minorities as its an endless battle out there (in today's society). Please note that this may not be the case in the lives of most of the population of the world as most has since conformed but this way of life still greatly affects the lives and families of "minorities" and is only a tool used to ensure the existence of social barriers which are based on "tradition".

Understanding His Failure

"Little Failure", A work by Gary Shteyngart, is an intriguing piece and using the subject matter of 'the life of an immigrant", easily strikes emotions within an audience, making it an instant success. 

The theme "failure" is very evident throughout the text with the constant reminder as Shteyngart uses this idea of everlasting failure to become the backbone of each story and how these elements to his doubts of ever becoming successful.

I find the novel very relate-able even though some parts are written in Russian, a language I have no experience in but despite this minor obstacle as it is essentially one of the most interesting parts of the book, I to am an immigrant and can relate to the difficulty of trying to adjust to an entirely different country(environment). I can relate to how he (unassumingly) feels a bit uneasy as a result of observing what these "new people" are accustomed to or what they expect of him.

His doubt also derives from the pressure of the expectations of his family pertaining ton what role they feel he should play in society with him being a member of the Soviet Union. Nether the less, I feel the true purpose of the novel is to prove to his family most of all that despite the traditions and obstacles of certain societies that we are placed in, with passion and determination, success is inevitable.