Dear students,
Below are some prompts that you may consider blogging in response to should you need some inspiration for this week's post.
1) In her poem "Be Nobody's Darling" Alice Walker suggests that being labeled an outcast is a positive and desirable identity. In an interview, when asked about this poem Walker went so far as to suggest that one cannot truly have freedom unless one becomes an outcast. Discuss Walker's poem in relation to one or more of the works we have read in class thus far. Would Maxine Hong Kingston, Louise Erdrich, or Jhumpa Lahiri agree or disagree with Walker's perspective on outcasthood?
2) Compare and contrast the ways in which women are viewed and treated in the short stories we have read thus far by Kingston, Erdrich, and Lahiri. Are women in these stories viewed as outcasts of society? If so, why? Do the stories in question challenge the idea that women are inferior to men?
3) Both Maxine Hong Kingston's "No Name Woman" and Louise Erdrich's "Fleur" feature strong characters whose stories are told by outside narrators (Kingston's telling of her aunt's story and Pauline's telling of Fleur's). Why might Kingston and Erdrich have chosen to tell their stories in this manner as opposed to having their central characters speak in their own voices? What purpose might this serve?
4) Identify a passage that captivated you as a reader from any of the works we have read thus far and practice the steps of close reading on it. Make sure to give adequate reference to which passage you are blogging in response to.
Happy blogging!
Jeff
Going off of number one, I think that being an outcast does give you a sense of freedom that noone else feels. It gives you that "high" to go an explore and try to fit in, and yet make you comfortable in your own skin that you feen off it. With that thinking, I would compare the poem to the "Fluer" story. I think that with Fleur she realised the outcast that she was, and she understood that nothing would change the way it made her seem. So while she was being being treated the way she was, she was also gaining her control of herslef. She was freeing herself by making others loose there hold.
ReplyDeleteIn a sense, to become free of the water demons hold (although it seems as if she was in love with it, or given some kind of magicalness from it) she was free by passing her deaths onto other men. It is sometimes crazy to think that being an outcast actually makes you freer, but being on the outside, your not like anyone else, nor do you try to be like anyone else. So you are saving yourself but excluding yourself. (if that makes sense at all!)
Hi Nadia,
ReplyDeleteMake sure to post your submissions as new posts to the blog not as comments to my prompts, as it will be easier for everyone else and myself to see your submission. I will post your entry to the main page of the blog for you this time.
Jeff
Zack Schwartz: Post 1) Although all of the stories we have read so far contain one or more characters that are considered to be outcasts, the word outcast contains a very unique meaning in each one. In Alice Walker's poem "Be Nobody's Darling", she clearly portrays outcasts as protagonists. She urges people to go against the current, and be their own person. This way, one can truly live a free life. Had Martin Luther King Jr. and other famous "outcasts" not followed Walker's advice. Society would not be the same today. Being an outcast can lead to progress, and is often necessary.
ReplyDeleteLouise Erdrich embodied an "outcast" using a very different character than the outcasts Walker described. The main character in her story is Fleur, an evil and mysterious girl who is surrounded by rumors of murder. She is avoided because people fear her, and also because she is viewed as different. It is a different situation entirely to be shunned because of evil actions than to be put down because you are trying to be free or put down social injustices. I believe outcasts can be both positive and negative, depending on the reasons for which a person is cast out of society. Society can be cruel to those who are aiming for change, yet also cruel to those who are evil. How a person responds to this adversity determines the quality of their character.
Zack,
ReplyDeleteMake sure to post your submissions as new posts to the blog not as comments to my prompts, as it will be easier for everyone else and myself to see your submission. I will post your entry to the main page of the blog for you this time.