Friday, June 6, 2008
Reflecting Upon Last Quarter
As a part time student at
The four pieces I have chosen will give a brief look into my class throughout the quarter. I have selected “Ending Poem” by Rosario Morales and Ariel Levins Morales to show my ability in critical thinking. This assignment was difficult because poetry is not one of my strengths. Despite that, I felt I did really well in this challenging assignment by dissecting the “voices” within the prose. For the redo assignment I chose the first timed writing assignment. This timed write was a little of a shock because it tested so many aspects of the class all at once and under a time restriction. I ended the first timed write with a question, which I am happy to now have the chance to answer. I have chosen my analysis of “Dude Looks like a Lady” and “To Tame a Wild Tongue” to show my audience and voice. I received a lot of compliments on my analysis and many classmates in my group seemed to have interesting reactions to my thesis. Lastly, for my author’s choice, I chose the last timed write. Looking back at my previous assignments, I reviewed my professor’s suggestions of how to improve my writing and analysis skill and applied it to this task. Based on the grade I received, as well as instructor comments on this assignment, I am most proud of this paper because it reflects my ability to absorb and learn from constructive feedback.
This class challenged me both as a student and as a citizen who deals with the central themes of identity and culture on a daily basis. I enjoyed the challenging course work and felt that I improved my writing and analysis skills. Also as my first online course, I learned new ways to communicate and collaborate with my peers. I hope this portfolio reflects some of my growth and that you enjoy reading it.
The Sound of My Thoughts
The following is a group discussion board piece in which I felt I did well in eliciting deeper analysis and provoked other students to questions their personal interpretations of the text. Many of my peers felt that I had accurately depicted human nature in the second to last paragraph when I refer to shortcuts in thinking processes.
In the discussion about “Dude Looks like a Lady” by Kathy Wilson, and “To Tame a Wild Tongue”by Gloria Anzaldua, I felt I challenged the readers to consider the inherent biases and perceived injustices at the hands of an oppressive culture. I attempted to challenge my peers and to explore the topic at a deeper level by asserting that there is a subtle but significant difference between oppression and ignorance.
In both texts, the authors claim oppression from external cultural influences. In this group discussion I asserted that malicious cultural oppression was perhaps not the cause of the their perceived injustice, but rather it was simply either a lack of the individual to recognize their actually cultural heritage or in the case of
While most feedback was positive, I do feel that I challenged some of my peers to approach the readings from a different perspective as well as deepen my own understanding that the causes of “stereotyping” are not always malicious.
Tale of Two Women
Both women profiled in these essays portray themselves as strong feminists struggling with societies preconceived perceptions of identity.
Anzaldua strongly identifies her heritage by her language. As she states:
Chicano Spanish sprang out of the Chicanos need to identify ourselves because we are a complex heterogeneous people” (55).
She describes Spanish culture as a melting pot. By altering the Spanish language by dialect or hybridization of two languages the people of Spanish decent were able to gain a sense of racial or ethnic identity, even if removed from the source of their original language. This in some sense is an invention of a new identity loosely and yet not indirectly correlated with their “original” language and the resulting identity.
“Forget the round face… what about the 40 C’s?” (22).
I make assumptions all the time. There is an ideological imprint embedded in all of us. Society is programmed to take short cuts in the thinking processes; most of the time its not inherently malicious or even intended. When we see bird we don’t automatically think “Double-crested Cormoranta” rather we reduce our internal referencing system to that which we are familiar. To most of us, unless you are an orthinologist, that object in the sky is simply a “bird”.
People have the right to identity but because a preconceived notion is being challenged it not right to persecute ignorance.
Take Two
In my first writing of the concept “Insider vs. Outsider” in regards to the film "Bend it Like Beckham" I made the assertion that some of the most challenging themes in the film dealt not only with the concept not of “Us vs. Them” also “Us vs. Us” as reflected by Jes having to defy both external stereotyping as well as internal sources of pressure as reflected by her attempt to rectify her desire to play soccer in the face of her own cultural forces which rejected her preferences.
I ended the essay with the following question: “How does one rectify both the assault to not only society at large but also one’s own cultural identity?” In this rewrite, I will attempt a deeper analysis of this lingering question and perhaps achieve a conclusive answer.
"Insiders vs. Ousiders"
The film Bend It like Beckam dealt primarily with issues of Insider vs. Outsider as its primary theme. In general it focused on clashes or cultures however the larger theme of “Us vs. Them” is consistent throughout most of the individual narratives and is one which we all have dealt with and related to in our personal lives. In this essay I will point to specific examples of this narrative within the film as well as tie these themes into my personal experiences of the clash between myself and culture.
In the film Jes is portrayed as an outsider both through her external cultural influences and more importantly by the influences her family exerts on her to accept and comply with her cultural norms. In a sense, she is an outsider by not only external clashes of culture but by her own identity clashing with her own culture.
Jes enjoys soccer, despite her family’s cultural background where women are frowned upon by engaging in this activity as it’s not proper for women to play sports. She defies her family’s wishes and continues despite their objection. Thus, she has become an outsider in her family’s eyes and by association, her own culture’s eyes.
Jes faces the unique proposition of not only defying cultural stereotypes (for example being called a “paki”) but also by defying her own cultural background. This is an example of a true “outsider” demonstrating not only a resistance to outside influence but also to internal influence as show by her families inability to allow her the room to pursue her ambitions. The film challenges the viewer to not only accept the conflict of the protagonist vs. an opposing culture but also the internal conflicts faced within the culture in which she actually belongs.
This I feel was the central point of the film. We all know that cultures clash, however when there is internal conflict or disconnect of one’s own culture the issues become more interesting. This to me was the most challenging part of the film. It’s easy to see the world as an “Us vs. Them” proposition, however it’s much more subtle and nuanced when it’s an “Us vs. Us” proposition. How does one rectify both the assault to not only society at large but also one’s own cultural identity?
--- BEGIN REWRITE---
The film Bend It like Beckam dealt primarily with issues of Insider vs. Outsider as its primary theme. In general it focused on clashes or cultures however the larger theme of “Us vs. Them” is consistent throughout most of the individual narratives and is one which we all have dealt with and related to in our personal lives.
In the film Jes is portrayed as an outsider both through her external cultural influences and more importantly by the influences her family exerts on her to accept and comply with her cultural norms. In a sense, she is an outsider by not only external clashes of culture but by her own identity clashing with her own culture.
Jes enjoys soccer, despite her family’s cultural background where women are frowned upon by engaging in this activity as it’s not proper for women to play sports. She defies her family’s wishes and continues despite their objection. Thus, she has become an outsider in her family’s eyes and by association, her own culture’s eyes.
Jes faces the unique proposition of not only defying cultural stereotypes (for example being called a “paki”) but also by defying her own cultural background. This is an example of a true “outsider” demonstrating not only a resistance to outside influence but also to internal influence as show by her families inability to allow her the room to pursue her ambitions. The film challenges the viewer to not only accept the conflict of the protagonist vs. an opposing culture but also the internal conflicts faced within the culture in which she actually belongs.
This I feel was the central point of the film. We all know that cultures clash, however when there is internal conflict or disconnect of one’s own culture the issues become more interesting. This to me was the most challenging part of the film. It’s easy to see the world as an “Us vs. Them” proposition, however it’s much more subtle and nuanced when it’s an “Us vs. Us” proposition. Jes took great strength from the support of her peers and the inspiration of her personal hero David Beckham. While her own culture was pressuring her to follow in their footsteps, Jes reached beyond her own culture to find sources of inspiration to persevere and follow her dreams. In some sense this is actually a case of using “Them” as a means to transcend “Us”. Where Jes couldn’t find solace internally in her culture she turned to those outside to gather strength. While “Insider Vs. Outsider” was a central theme of the movie, it was more than coincidental that the “Outsider’s” in this case were actually a benefit to her aspirations.
We typically see the world as an “Us Vs. Them” propositions with the assumption being the “Them” is a negative influence. In the case of Jes, however the “Them” actually allowed her to transcend the limitations imposed on her by her own internal cultural influences.
Analyze This
Working in a technical field I am constantly forced to analyze and evaluate technical writing; as a result I feel most comfortable when we were asked to analyze a reading based on facts or stated opinions. This skill set however is not well suited to poetry as poems are by their very nature open to interpretation and subjective analysis.
“Ending Poem” challenged me to understand the prose and the overall intent of the poem. After analysis, I felt that I successfully identified the poets presenting their message as the voice of two individuals conversing via the poem’s prose rather than one author speaking from a singular point of view.
A particular instance of this analysis that I felt identified my interpretation of this dual voice is reflected in the following statement: “In a macro sense, the poem is about reconciling their past and the mother’s cultural identity with the more Americanized identity of the daughter.”
“Ending Poem”
The poem is unclear in whose voice is speaking in the italics vs. the normal text, however from the intro I am to assume that it is the mother and daughter exchanging lines of the poem which both introduce questions of identity provided by a response. I feel that the interplay between the two women affects the message of the poem by providing both the mother and daughter’s perspectives as almost a question and response style of prose. The mother poses a question which the daughter elaborates upon or responds. In a macro sense, the poem is about reconciling their past and the mother’s cultural identity with the more Americanized identity of the daughter. This is reflected in the following prose:
“I am not Taina
I am late root of that ancient tree
and my roots reach into the soil of two
Taino is in me, but there is no way back”
This suggests a conflict of identity shared by the two women and their ties to their original community. One doesn’t feel the same sense of belonging (except via their connection to the family) where as the other feels almost a sad longing to reconnect to their community but also feels as though they have been assimilated into a new community separate from their roots.
I feel the authors moved from first person prose to plural prose to demonstrate that while the mother is separated from her original community and the daughter never fully experienced this community, they both feel a sense of belonging based on their shared cultural heritage. The final line of the poem I felt was the most poignant, “And we are whole” reflecting the undeniable tie that their community (however close in proximity today) still holds and influences both women.
And I Choose...
For my “Author’s Choice”, I decided to use the timed writing analysis of the film “Fight Club”. While I have seen this film numerous times I have never analyzed it in the manner that the course challenged me to undertake. I felt I delivered a strong thesis based on a deeper analysis of the film when viewed through this lens.
I felt the strength of my argument was influenced heavily by the conversations in the group discussions as well as analysis of feedback from prior work provided by my instructors. In addition, I feel this writing was further strengthened by taking a deeper look at my own personal concepts of conformity in my own peer groups. I have always been interested in my social life how certain “non-conformist” groups seem to share so many similar characteristics, in essence a contradiction of non-conformity itself. I felt I accurately represented this conflict in my analysis of the homogeneous nature of the members of Project Mayhem. As I state in my analysis: “my perception of non conformity was challenged, not by the actions of Project Mayhem, which clearly did not conform to society and culture, but rather to the strict nature of conformity within the group itself.”
Fighting Against Conformity
The group Project Mayhem was rebelling against conformity and establishment of the culture which it existed in, yet they epitomized that same conformist nature which they were rebelling against within their own group.
My idea of non conformity is that of an individual that rejects social and cultural constructs, my perception of non conformity was challenged, not by the actions of Project Mayhem, which clearly did not conform to society and culture, but rather to the strict nature of conformity within the group itself. The group members had a strict set of rules that must be followed. The members of Project Mayhem were forced to dress the same, blindly follow orders and often parroted phrases and edicts set in place by Mr. Durbin. While clearly their actions were considered outside the norm in the context of the society in which they existed, I felt it was ironic that, with the exception of Mr. Durbin, they allowed themselves to be so completely indoctrinated into their new “culture”; that of project mayhem.
I see this often in real life; many of our own societies perceived non conformists: punk rockers, emo individuals, skaters, etc., claim they are rebelling against a society they have rejected. They do this not only by words and actions but by a unique outwards appearance for example; tattooes, piercings, and hair styles. This to me represented the same type of non conformity expressed by Project Mayhem members; the same reasons why the group’s goals and mission statements are out of the mainstream. The individual members of these groups almost always share similar cultural and political viewpoints, dress and look the same and reinforce each other’s similarities by subtle peer pressure.
Much Thanks
I just wanted to take the time to extend warm thanks to my fellow classmates and English professors in assisting me on my path to better writing. Kudos to all and well wishes to everyone on their personal paths in academia.
-Rebecca
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