· Identify a section or passage from your memoir that would be worth analyzing through one of the lenses. Summarize this section briefly, in a sentence or two.
· Then analyze this section or passage through one of the lenses in a few sentences.
· Close your blog post with a lens question related to your analysis, that any classmate—no matter which memoir they are reading, can respond to. (Examples: Is anyone else starting to feel that their memoirist’s memory is unreliable? Is anyone else’s memoirist struggling with his/her performance of gender role norms? Is anyone else seeing examples blurred lines between the “colonizer” and the “colonist”?)
· Respond to at least 2 of your peers’ posts.
In my memoir, Eat Pray Love, the main character feels very un-independent in the marriage life. It's as if she is always dependent on her husband, can't do anything as she wishes.She wanted to be "... independent, strong, and self sufficient. A self-feeder." This is evident of the gender lens because it shows how as a women in her marriage she has no sense of control what goes on in her life and has to do things the way her husband wishes not her. As a women she is subjugated by her husband who clearly has more power over their marriage life.
ReplyDeleteIs the main character of your memoir going through a phase where she feels subjugated and feels as if she has lost her independence because of marriage or a man?
From what I've read so far in my book, Alice isn't married - she is a 19 year old who is trying to get herself together after she was raped. Although when she saw her rapist after 6 months walking around her campus, she was seen as weak in my eyes because she was afraid. But she ends up calling the cops and he ends up being arrested for a few months so I guess she does have some sense of power in a way- but only after he was gone because she basically proved to her rapist that even if he wasn't put in jail or found right after she was raped, she proved to him that now was his time to go to jail (I hope that made sense.)
Delete- Tiffany Da Silva
In my memoir my main character is a male but his wife can relate to your main character. My main character and his wife want to have a second child and my main character micromanages her about her ovulation times and etc. In a way my main character's wife loses some of her independence.
Deletein my memoir, the authors mother feels less independent because she is married to the father. The father is the one to make the decisions including what to do with the money that they have. He often spends it drinking and the mother is unable to keep some cash for herself.
DeleteDoes our pride and drive to be independent affect our relationships with people.
DeleteMemoir "Lucky" by Alice Sebold
ReplyDeleteBefore attending jury, Alice remembers that she had to pick her rapist out of a lineup. She was nervous which made sense but she was warned to take her time which she simply didn't listen to. She examined the lineup and eliminated one, two, and three. She was between four and five. She described them to be "identical" because of there build appearance. Four was looking down, and five was staring right at her even if he couldn’t see her through the tinted glass, but he knew she was there. She picked number five to be her rapist which turned out to be wrong, she said she picked him because "the expression in his eyes told [her] that if [they] were alone, if there we no wall between [them], he would call [her] by name and then kill [her]." p.137
This is significant to Judith Gender Performativity Theory because she picked an innocent victim to be her rapist out of the "threatening" look he gave her and his appearance.
Does your character seem to "judge" others by the way they are build or they way they look?
- Tiffany Da Silva
No in my memoir the main character doesn't judge people by the way they look but others judge the main character because of her femininity.
DeleteI think its a yes and no in my memoir. The main character in my memoir has a very typical description on how someone looks but only to use it to compare it to himself.
Deleteyes, in my memoir people judge the author on how she looks because she comes from a poor family. She is made fun of by others because of her appearance.
DeleteYes, the main character judges the Puerto Rican men on her block because her mother told her they were dangerous.
DeleteIn my memoir "The Year of Living Biblically" by A. J. Jacobs, looking from a gender lens, you can see how my main character interact differently with females. Since my main character is following the bible rules strictly, he is unable to to touch women. Others see it as a prejudice but he's just trying to follow the rules.
ReplyDeleteDoes your character change the way he/she interact with the opposite gender base on religion?
Yes, in my memoir Elizabeth finds peace after she meets this guru and after visiting this guru she begins to question her interaction with her boyfriend David.
DeleteHmm, I'm actually not sure when it comes to religion based on my book. When a priest went to visit Alice's house, Alice didn't like the fact that her parents had agreed for a prayer because she was raped.
Delete- Tiffany Da Silva
To add on to what Tiffany said, religion did not play a part at all, it was merely because the priest was a male that made her feel uncomfortable.
DeleteI agree what Tiffany had to say since were reading the same book to add on She had the priest herself to pray on her because her family ideals were if she able to be save by religion because she was raped.
DeleteIn my book, Elizabeth finds peace with her religion and encounters based off of her experiences in many countries.
DeleteIn my book, religion doesn't play a role in her judgement of others, it is primarily based off appearance.
DeleteThe Glass Castle: The author Jeanette and her father share a close bond. Her father taught her everything she needed to know and how to be a strong independent individual. However, her father sometimes exploits her and asks her for money because he knows that her mother gives some money to Jeannette in order to provide for the family. He also knows that she cannot say no to her own father because she does not have it in her will. He hands over money to him whenever he wants to buy beer and cigarettes. Deep inside she really does not want to give him what he wants, because she knows that they family will not benefit if this continues because they are always short of money. This proves to show that gender plays a huge role since her father has more power over her, and influences her decisions.
ReplyDeletedo your characters tend to listen to people of higher power?
Yes, or to people that have the ability to pressure her into doing things. For example, after Alice was raped, her friends boyfriend wanted to give her a hug. No one can imagine how uncomfortable she was feeling when he asked her for a hug, and after such a situation it would be hard to interact with people again. Alice was peer pressured into hugging him.
DeleteMy character seems to be tricked by her older sister and believes she is right about things.
DeleteDefinitely, my authors whole experiment is based on following the Bible to the letter. He says he hasn't felt God's presence yet so maybe he's not following a higher power, just God's word.
Delete"Lucky" Alice Sebold
ReplyDeleteAlice was not the only grouped after being sexual assaulted by society. Alice started to group males and specifically black males. Of course, this was unintentional but it is very hard not to after such a scenario. When choosing who might have sexaully assaulted her out of group of people, she started grouping people by their skin color and external apperance. It seemed that from there she judg people that looked a certain way as well which is what Jacque Lacan's theory is about.
Would you blame someone for grouping and judging someone else? Is it human nature to do such a thing?
I guess yes no matter what situation because at the end of the day. For my ideals is one person that committed the action doesn't means it follows for the rest.
DeleteIn my book, Elizabeth is the one often realizing she is the outsider instead of grouping herself in.
DeleteI wouldn't blame them because in Eat,Pray, Love when Elizabeth goes to different countries, people do notice that she is different and group her as "other".
DeleteIt depends because some people will group with each other to blame someone else because their ideals they follow is different. It natural to agree and disagree, it just depends how you deal with it.
DeleteIt depends because some people will group with each other to blame someone else because their ideals they follow is different. It natural to agree and disagree, it just depends how you deal with it.
DeleteIn the book Luck by Alice Sebold I want to point out a scene where Alice herself is in the court room and for the readers who are just starting the book there are no spoiler. To the point a lens showed about memory. In the court room Alice was being asked slot of questions about the day of the rape. Some of it she knew by hear but other well... it took time to remember and getting questioned about your ill memory. Cause her to feel powerless. This is not how it ends readers. This shows how memory plays a huge role on Alice's life. I wonder if she brought her diary to the case to prove the lens that you''ll will forget but have to come back to the memory. .
ReplyDelete"And how much can an outsider like me ever learn of the hidden stresses that might loiter behind those “shining faces”? It’s the same here as anywhere else—you look at the picture too closely and all the firm lines start to melt away into an indistinct mass of blurry brushstrokes and blended pixels" This has a post colonial and Freud lens because Elizabeth is often outcasted as the other in the countries she visits and starts to believe that the perceptions she had of things may not be as reliable as she once thought her judgements were.
ReplyDeleteWhy does our perceptions or memories change based off of new information we hear?
Do the things we hear about people (rumors, secrets) affect our image of them?
Delete"In any case, I've decided--and my aunt Kate would kill me if she heard this--that the Wikipedia and the Bible have a lot in common. Hardcore believers say that the Bible emerged from God's oven like a fully baked cake. Or, to be precise, several fully baked pieces. Moses transcribed the first five books. King David wrote Psalms. The Gospel of St.Luke was written solely by St. Luke. Every book of the Bible was written by a single author who transcribed God's words."
ReplyDeleteIn this passage, A.J discusses the bible, and the impact it has on social expectations of you, and those around you. Looking through a social/religious lens, when you are apart of any religion, you are expected to accept the teachings that it preaches, and not question them. Anyone who does so, is automatically singled out, and labeled as the "other".
Do your own beliefs affect how you interact socially with other people?
Yes, in a memoir I'm reading, the Glass Castle the parents believe they should be self sufficient and that people who take help from the government to battle poverty are worse off than them so they are kinder to those who take help from the government.
Delete-Alexandria J.
In the novel, Eat,Pray,Love.Elizabeth states " Depression and Loneliness track me down after about ten days in Italy". Elizabeth begins to feel overwhelmed with all her emotions. With those emotions, it brings up character traits that she held back while she was married. Through her journeys and all the emotions she feels , she begins to analyze why she is the way she is. Does emotion help one realize themselves.
ReplyDeleteEmotions are making my narrator feel guilty about herself because she believes that her lack of support and involvement with her family are causing its destruction.
DeleteThe question is, who are we without emotion? Emotions control who we are because it contributes to how we preieve how people look at us, what we think about certain events leading to how we deal with that and how we deal with is what makes us who we are
Delete-Alexandria J.
Yes I think that emotions do play a big role into realizing themselves, unfortunately in my memoir when Alice goes to the line up to identify her victim she lets her emotions take over her leading her into picking the wrong guy!
DeleteMemoir: Breaking Night
ReplyDelete"By my behavior, my wearing shorts and T-shirts, and especially my body, I thought, I might as well be a boy. Climbing trees or getting filthy with the guys, I was often called "tomboy" by other kids. It was a term that made my face hot and my heart beat fast. Just because I was active and enjoyed being physical, I didn't see why this got me compared to a boy."
By using the gender lens, I see that pre-conceived notions about gender roles are playing a pivotal part in my narrator's views on herself so that she calls herself neither a boy nor a girl.
Is anyone else seeing that their character is confused about their gender based on what others tell them?
I totally agree with you about how she was compared to a boy because of her physical interests, in my memoir my character Alice isn't confused about her gender but she is comparing other people to that one person who hurt her.
DeleteIn the Glass Castle there us a part where young Jeannette finds out her father was molested by her grandmother. This may explain why her father feels inadequate about everything he can't do that normally a male can do which leads to his depression and alcoholism. Does anyone find that because of a bad event in their memiorst's past, it leads to their depression?
ReplyDelete-Alexandria J.
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ReplyDeleteBreaking Night: Elizabeth goes out to find a job because her parents aren't making enough money for her to have regular meals. She is turned down at all the places she applied to because she is only nine years old. She is responsible enough to hold a job because she is wiser than her age because she had to look after her mother. Through the mirror theory we can see that Elizabeth is judged before she can be understood. Is the main character in any other person's memoir being judged based on age?
ReplyDelete“Romance novels,” I said. “Those things are just sort of silly, aren’t they?”
ReplyDelete“Lots of people - mostly women - love them,” Mr. P said. “They buy millions of them. There are lots of writers who make millions by writing romance novels.”
In the book “The absolutely true diary of a part-time Indian” Junior learns that his sister was interested in writing and she wanted to write romance novels, and laughs at the idea. He questions their seriousness and his teacher Mr. P explains how they sell like hot cakes and are popular mostly among women. Looking at this through a gender lense I couldn’t help but agree, now granted men do read romance novels but the ideal candidate for both writing and reading the romance novels tend to be mostly women. For example one of the most popular and well known “Romance” novel known is “Twilight” by Stephenie Meyer was the “50 Shades of Grey” a good 7-10 years ago. Only to become even more renowned when the book was adapted into its own film series. Now I’ll admit I did watch one or two movies but it was simply to find out what the whole craze was about, not to mention the countless fan-girls, and tweens that went wild over the books and movies. From this I’d have to agree with Mr. P when he states that mostly women enjoy reading Romance Novels. I’d like to hear what you guys have to say, has anyone encountered an arguable gender-specific idea which they couldn’t help but agree with?
Yes, there are somethings that are gender-specific idea that I could agree is that is marketing. Like some products are marketing to men and some to women, such as make up.
Delete“ Hey, Rowdy… I’m in love with a white girl. What should I do?”, A few minutes later “ Hey, Asshole, I’m sick of Indian guys who treat white women like bowling trophies. Get a life.” Page 115.
ReplyDeleteIn the book "Absolutely True Diary of a Part- Time Indian" junior ask advice from his former best friend about a crush in school. What Rowdy believes that society make white people superior, leaving Native Americans below them. Native shouldn’t interact with them because society will force them to fail. That is the reason why Rowdy dislike Junior, because Junior went to an all white school basically making him a traitor for choosing to become white. He hate the idea of white people being the best. So if a person leaves community to make better opportunities should be consider traitor?
In the passage I have chosen from " The Year of Living Biblically" the author experiences othering due to the public practice of his religious beliefs. He reports that he gets weird looks from New Yorkers on the train as he tries to read the Bible, and remarks that he should've purchased a version of the Bible from an earlier passage that appears to be a copy of Seventeen magazine, so as to allow discretion to Christians. When analyzing this passage through a post colonial lens, similarities can be drawn between how the author is seen and how minorities are seen in the general public. In fact, in a city as secular as New York it could be argued that religious New Yorkers are a minority themselves. When A.J., the author, reads the bible on the subway, he is upsetting a relative peaceful conformity(yes New York has a status quo too) the other subway riders give him looks, he notes "...hostility emanating from the secular commuters. They look at me with their lips taut and faces tense, like they expect me to tackle them at any moment and forcibly baptize them." Does anyone else have an author that puporsefully separates themselves from mainstream society?
ReplyDeleteIn my memoir Lucky by Alice Sebold, their is a section of the book after Alice got raped and when she was invloved in these court cases. When analyzing this passage though a gender lens and also through Lacan's theory, Alice being 19 years old, she just wanted to live a normal life just like any ordinary 19 year old girl. While being around many different people there was one type that couldn't leave her mind.Seeing big African males around her made her more traumatized and kept on bringing back the horrifying memory of her being raped. I don't think that it was right for her to look at these innocent men as bad people but in her position she was just a young girl who was taken advantage of in a bad state of mind! Does anyone else have a character that blames or looks at other characters as bad or tries to compare them to others?
ReplyDelete