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All The Feels (Identity identity-wide (Conformity 4bee552c200a4159563ac7c4…

- - - - In The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, Junot Diaz narrates the life of Oscar Wao through his roommate Yunior, a Dominican American immigrant whose grandparents ventured to the United States to attempt to give Oscar better opportunities. However, it is revealed that Oscar's family has had a legacy of intergenerational sexual vioence. Due to this, he faces immense trouble to find a girlfriend and goes on a journey to understand how to find true love. This novel relates to the theme of inheritance because from the very start of the novel, Oscar has trouble relating and communicating with women because of he inherited the course of generational repetition from his family's legacy that his grandparents tried to leave behind.
    - - In Maxine Hong Kinston’s memoir The Woman Warrior, Kingston elaborates on the conflict she faces between the identities within her Chinese heritage and her place in America. This conflict of identity stems from Brave Orchid and Moon Orchid, who are relatives and family members of Kingston. Kingston then tells the story of Brave Orchid, who seems to have assimilated into American society, as she is able to take care of herself independently, speaks English, and raises her children. Moon Orchid has trouble fitting into finding her place in American society as she’s incredibly passive, unwilling to make contact with her husband who has fully assimilated into an American lifestyle. This difference of America from her traditional homeland eventually drives Moon Orchid insane, with her saying that she sees Mexican ghosts. In the end she’s ultimately sent to a mental asylum. This relates to the concept of tradition because as Brave Orchid as able to fully assimilate into American culture, Moon Orchid could not because her ties to her traditional culture were too strong. Everytime she attempted to break them, she eventually was forced to revert back to them. This continuous cycle is what lead to her madness.
  - - - In The Reluctant Fundamentalist, Changez struggles with his identity and origin. He wants to become an American while also staying true to his Pakistani roots. In the story, it is revealed that Changez wants to become more American than a Pakistani and is ashamed by his culture. However, by the end of the book Changez leaves America to go back to his hometown of Pakistan.
  - - - Diaz describes Yunior as a man who heeds to hegemonic masculinity and is a stereotypical persona of the “typical Dominican male,” who is both tough and sturdy. Yunior depicts superiority as a male by describing himself as being “hard” and being able to bench 340 pounds (170).However, Yunior also has a nerdy side to him. He openly admits to enjoying “shit like Akira” (172). Unfortunately, his nerdiness is simply incompatible with the masculinity that all Dominican males should have. Unlike Oscar, Yunior maintains an image of hegemonic masculinity by hiding “his otakuness” (21). Yunior’s hegemonic masculinity requires him to maintain and protect it, which he does despite the negative inner consequences. Yunior still upholds his hegemonic masculinity even though it prevents him from attaining deeper relationships. Hegemonic masculinity maintains its grip over Yunior by prompting him with sexual rewards.
    - - Written by Chinese American author, Maxine Hong Kingston, The Woman Warrior is an extraordinary novel and autobiography blending both the life of Kingston with old Chinese folktales. Throughout the book, Kingston provides her readers with personal and cultural contexts to help comprehend her life story as a first-generation Chinese-American woman. Kingston emphasizes women in Chinese society and their consequent lack of individuality. Through the use of a combination of her mother's traditional Chinese perspective of women, Chinese folk tales, and her own view as a Chinese woman, she illustrates how Chinese culture shapes gender roles in society.
  - - - Oscar in comparison is the exact opposite of what a Dominican male should be. He lacks all abilities to be considered a Dominican male with masculinity. Yunior later tells to Oscar, “Listen, palomo: you have to grab a muchacha, y metéselo. That will take care of everything” (Diaz 23). This quote by Yunior epitomizes the way that Domincans males see themselves. Men who have women in their lives are superior to those who don’t. By getting a woman, Yunior says to Oscar that this will be “taking care of everything”.
    - - Changez adapts and slowly learns the culture of America, he also begins to change himself to become more American. To succeed in the United States, Changez feels that he must accommodate and conform himself to American standards. While on a trip to the Philippines, Changez realizes that his fellow group of Americans were instinctively treated more respectfully by the Filipinos. As a new American, Changez also yearns for that respect: “Perhaps it was for this reason that I did something in Manila I had never done before: I attempted to act and speak, as much as my dignity would permit, more like an American” (Hamid 32). Changez sees this change in himself as a good thing with several benefits. However, as the novel progresses, he begins to realize that the benefits are only short-term and regrets this change he makes in himself. Just as Changez changes himself to seem more appealing to America, Changez morphs himself to be more appealing to Erica. On one occasion when they have sex, Changez tells Erica to pretend that he is Chris:
        When I tried to kiss her, she did not move her lips or shut her eyes. So I shut them for her and asked, “Are you missing Chris?” She nodded, and I saw tears begin to force themselves between her lashes. “Then pretend,” I said, “pretend I am him.” I do not know why I said it; I felt overcome and it seemed, suddenly, a possible way forward...I do not know how to describe my experience of what happened next; I cannot, of course, claim that I was possessed, but at the same time I did not seem to be myself. It was as though we were under a spell, transported to a world where I was Chris and she was with Chris, and we made love with a physical intimacy that Erica and I had never enjoyed. Her body denied mine no longer; I watched her shut eyes, and her shut eyes watched him (Hamid 49).
  - - - Early in the novel, Changez’s experience in America is a positive and exciting one. He lives out his dream of studying in the United States and becoming successful in the land of opportunity. Although at times Changez feels like an outsider, he eventually begins to feel that he truly belongs in America. However, as the novel progresses, Changez’s relationship becomes shaky and eventually falls apart. After 9/11, Changez notices that he is treated and looked at differently than everyone else since he is Pakistani man. Even though he begins to love his new country, which has provided him with a first-rate education and job, the patriotism and nostalgia that Americans feel begin to make Changez even more alien:
        Possibly this was due to my state of mind, but it seemed to me that America, too, was increasingly giving itself over to a dangerous nostalgia at that time. There was something undeniably retro about the flags and uniforms, about generals addressing cameras in war rooms and newspaper headlines featuring such words as duty and honor. I had always thought of America as a nation that looked forward; for the first time I was struck by its determination to look back (Hamid 53).
    - - In “How to Tame a Wild Tongue” , Gloria Anzaldua describes an ironic issue that occurs when she visits a dentist and the problem had nothing to do with her teeth but instead her tongue. When further analyzing the text, it is revealed that as a Chicano, she is unable to find her place in a community full of native Spanish and English speakers. Also, her Chicano culture has a long strung tradition in the way it treats men and women differently. As she feels deeply connected to her culture, she feels that language serves as the foundation for one’s identity. When this language is judged or criticized, she believes that her identity at its very core is also being attacked.
  - - - In “The Affective Politics of Fear” , author Sara Ahmed claims that emotion drives humans, and by extension, our society today. Emotions influence everything humans do today, which can affect other humans in doing so. In this way, people can take advantage of humans to drive their own interests, which is especially prevalent in today’s political society. Emotions such as fear can prove to be a blockage for progress, while anger can lead to political movements to change the status quo.
    - - After the terrorist attacks of 9/11, Changez describes the many laws and security checks put in place that he felt discriminated against his people, the Pakistanis. Many innocent middleeastern people were seen as a threat to Americans simply because of their race.
- - - - When Oscar finally return back to the Dominican Republic, he meets Ybon, a prostitute who he eventually falls in love with. Ybon gives Oscar the female affection and attention that he had never received before. In the novel, Ybon is controlled by her husband, known in the book as “the captain”. When he learns of Oscar and his attraction to his woman, he decides to send his men to kill Oscar. Before Oscar is killed, he gives a speech, staying that he has stayed true to his manhood by ultimately losing his life for what he believes is the most sacred thing: love. Soon after discovering Oscar’s death, Yunior finds a new understanding of what he wants to do in life. He decides to settle down, get married, and teach creative writing.
    - - Erica tortures herself by continually reminiscing about the time she had with her ex-boyfriend Chris to the point where the relationship between Changez and herself becomes unbearable. Changez, who deeply loves Erica, does what he thinks is best for her: pretending that he is Chris. As a result, the two “made love with a physical intimacy” that they had never had before. This act between the two seems all and well, but Changez later realizes that the benefits are only short-term and later regrets this decision. The act is a clever metaphor for the way Changez must pretend to be someone else to succeed in the United States.
  - - - Junot Diaz’s The Brief and Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, is another example of how culture can shape the way that one should act as part of their respective gender. Oscar’s life is shaped by the cultural expectations of the Dominican environment of the novel. We learn that masculinity and sex are vital elements in being a Dominican male. According to Yunior, the narrator of the novel, a Dominican male should have power and “pizzazz”, should also look to dominate women by controlling their sexuality through physical violence and verbal aggression, and should always seek to protect their family.
      - In The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, Oscar learns first-hand how hard it is to be a Dominican male with the hegemonic masculinity that comes along with it. He finds acceptance in the fact that he will never be the stereotypical Dominican male. By the end of the book, we learn that Dominicans often confuse true love with sex. Dominican males use romantic love as a way to exercise power or show status, which leads to many looking for love their entire lives without ever finding it. As a response to these gender-based expectations, Oscar’s relationship with a prostitute Ybon, something that is seen to be very low for Dominican standards, is shown to be the truest expression of love.
  - - - Her mother finishes the story by giving Kingston a lesson about the susceptibility of a woman's body: “Now that you have started to menstruate, it could happen to you. Don’t humiliate us” (Kingston 60). Unlike western culture, eastern culture frames pregnancy as something that just happens to a woman when she is not careful. Kingston understands the act of her aunt jumping down the well with her baby as an act of love, due to the fact that her aunt could have simply smothered the baby and continued to live. Unlike Kingston, Brave Orchid never even ponders the likelihood that her sister might have found her true love or that she loved and wanted to keep the child that she took to the bottom of the well.
  - - - Changez adapts and slowly learns the culture of America, he also begins to change himself to become more American. To succeed in the United States, Changez feels that he must accommodate and conform himself to American standards. While on a trip to the Philippines, Changez realizes that his fellow group of Americans were instinctively treated more respectfully by the Filipinos. As a new American, Changez also yearns for that respect: “Perhaps it was for this reason that I did something in Manila I had never done before: I attempted to act and speak, as much as my dignity would permit, more like an American” (Hamid 32). Changez sees this change in himself as a good thing with several benefits. However, as the novel progresses, he begins to realize that the benefits are only short-term and regrets this change he makes in himself. Just as Changez changes himself to seem more appealing to America, Changez morphs himself to be more appealing to Erica. On one occasion when they have sex, Changez tells Erica to pretend that he is Chris:
        When I tried to kiss her, she did not move her lips or shut her eyes. So I shut them for her and asked, “Are you missing Chris?” She nodded, and I saw tears begin to force themselves between her lashes. “Then pretend,” I said, “pretend I am him.” I do not know why I said it; I felt overcome and it seemed, suddenly, a possible way forward...I do not know how to describe my experience of what happened next; I cannot, of course, claim that I was possessed, but at the same time I did not seem to be myself. It was as though we were under a spell, transported to a world where I was Chris and she was with Chris, and we made love with a physical intimacy that Erica and I had never enjoyed. Her body denied mine no longer; I watched her shut eyes, and her shut eyes watched him (Hamid 49).
  - - - Written by Chinese American author, Maxine Hong Kingston, The Woman Warrior is an extraordinary novel and autobiography blending both the life of Kingston with old Chinese folktales. Throughout the book, Kingston provides her readers with personal and cultural contexts to help comprehend her life story as a first-generation Chinese-American woman. Kingston emphasizes women in Chinese society and their consequent lack of individuality. Through the use of a combination of her mother's traditional Chinese perspective of women, Chinese folk tales, and her own view as a Chinese woman, she illustrates how Chinese culture shapes gender roles in society.
      - As a child, Kingston was berated by her mother who continually insisted that she was useless or “bad”. Kingston then starts to cry, which to her mother was only another form of being a “bad girl”. Kingston then reflects on this idea of restricting the behavior of women, asking her mother, "Isn't being a bad girl almost a boy?” (Kingston 56). Throughout the novel, Kingston describes the way that Chinese culture devalues and belittles women in society, even going as far as to kill babies if they were female:
        I hope this holeless baby proves that my mother did not prepare a box of clean ashes beside the birth bed in case of a girl. “The midwife or a relative would take the back of a girl baby’s head in her hand and turn her face into the ashes,” said my mother. “It was very easy.” She never said she herself killed babies, but perhaps the holeless baby was a boy (Kingston 127).
      - The texts of both "The Woman Warrior" and the Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao are connected in the way that gender roles can shape the way you act in society.
    - - One of the meaningful focal points of The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison is the idea of feminism and its relation to the oppression of women. As the reader progresses through the story, the delineation of men and women based on their difference in power is self evident. In a patriarchal society, such as the one set in Morrison’s novel, women are meant to be accomodating and dutiful to the men in their lives. Similar to the manner in which women are oppressed by men, women oppress those who are weaker and completely defenseless, turning the grudge they have for men outward onto others. The audience comes upon an exception to this oppression of man over woman: the prostitutes of the town - Poland, China, and Miss Marie
  - - - The poem is separated into different stanzas that work together to convey a strong message. The first stanza talks about different groups of people, and the different characterisitcs of all these people. The second stanza centralizes its ideal around fear and how instead of worrying about the future, should look back and see the accomplishments that they have made in the past. The third stanza is a coninuation of the second stanza accentuating the fact that you should be proud of your accomplishments. Finally, the fourth and final stanza since someone has already experienced pain, suffering, and triumph, they might as well speak because they were not intended to experience all of those emotions and survive. This poem relates to the theme of hope because there is the hope to experience something more and that since "we were never supposed to survive" , we might as well make the best of the time we were given
    - - In this peace of work, the idea of hope is emphasized. Hope is meaningful when you carefully observe its potentiality and itself becomes the scale according with target content of freedom kingdom. In summary, hope is an open state of a postive and forward mindset and is not connected to things in the present but rather ideas of the future. This paper redefines the definition of hope from the perspective of an anthropologist.
- - - - Throughout the novel, it becomes very clear that there is a certain power hierarchy based on gender. In a book where the most centralized themes are focused on femininity and womanhood, one might think that those who are pure and holy might be considered to be more powerful but in the case of The Bluest Eye, it is the exact opposite. Due to their own sense of superiority over men, the ones who are truly empowered are the ruined prostitutes of the story—China, Poland, and Miss Marie.
    - - In the movie Get Out, Jordan Peele describes the separation of black and white communities in America. He conveys a strong message of how black people are seen as inferior mentally but superior physically to white people by displaying black housekeepers in white households. The theme of fear and paranoia is prevalent and shows how there is a division between the two different communities and how white people still wield power and influence over people of color.
    - - Kingston later recounts the folk tale of Fa Mu Lan, an ancient story of a girl who took her father’s place in battle. This story characterizes the dutifulness that Chinese women are expected to uphold for the men in their lives. The act of wearing a warrior’s clothes as a woman would usually result in execution. However, Fa Mu Lan is forgiven because of her deeds. Kingston compares the tales of Fa Mu Lan with her own personal life, which she finds sad and disconcerting. She struggles to prove her value to her parents as a female, who find fault with her for being a woman. Kingston’s reimagines her mother’s story of Fa Mu Lan and attempts makes it her own, thus asserting her girlhood in a way that is purposeful to her, as opposed to simply accepting her mother’s gender-based expectations.
    - - This essay explains that while melancholia and morning may seem very similar at a first glance, they are in fact, very different. Contrary to mourning, Melancholia is much more serious. The person suffering from it will often have a much bigger loss and be consumed by grief. Racial melancholia is due to the mistreatment of people of color by white people and this harm causes a racial divide that continues to this day.
  - - - In The Bluest Eye, the black characters endure intense discrimination a white dominated society. An example of this was when Pecola was in the candy store. Pecola was barely acknowledged by the white cashier: “He does not see her, because there is nothing to see. How can a fifty-two-year-old white immigrant storekeeper with the taste of potatoes and beer in his mouth, his mind honed on the Virgin Mary, his sensibilities blunted by a permanent awareness of loss, see a little black girl?” This discrimination instills a sense of shame within its recepients, and in this case, the black community as a whole.
    - - In the first part of the novel, the narrator recounts the time when her mother tells her the story of the “No-Name Woman”, her husband’s deceased sister: You must not tell anyone,” my mother said, “what I am about to tell you. In China, your father had a sister who killed herself. She jumped into the family well. We say that your father has all brothers because it is as if she had never been born (Kingston 59). The story of the No Name Woman is a source of shame in the family. As a result, Kingston’s mother orders her to not to tell a soul about this story and is very cautionary when doing so.
    - - Like America during the War on Terror, Erica becomes increasingly consumed with her own past, particularly her love for Chris, her now dead boyfriend. It is improbable that the history between Erica and Chris was nearly as strong while they were together. She chooses to idealize the past simply because it is in the past; because it’s safe, indisputable, and changeless. As a result, Erica’s inability to escape her past prevents her from loving Changez in the present. Similarly, America’s failure to escape its past also prevents Changez to feel that he remains and belongs.
  - - - In The Bluest Eye, the black characters endure intense discrimination a white dominated society. An example of this was when Pecola was in the candy store. Pecola was barely acknowledged by the white cashier: “He does not see her, because there is nothing to see. How can a fifty-two-year-old white immigrant storekeeper with the taste of potatoes and beer in his mouth, his mind honed on the Virgin Mary, his sensibilities blunted by a permanent awareness of loss, see a little black girl?” This discrimination instills a sense of shame within its recepients, and in this case, the black community as a whole.
    - - In “The Affective Politics of Fear” , author Sara Ahmed claims that emotion drives humans, and by extension, our society today. Emotions influence everything humans do today, which can affect other humans in doing so. In this way, people can take advantage of humans to drive their own interests, which is especially prevalent in today’s political society. Emotions such as fear can prove to be a blockage for progress, while anger can lead to political movements to change the status quo.
    - - While Changez attempts to create relationships with his fellow peers, he can’t shake the feeling that he and his peers will be unable to truly understand one another. This feeling ceases when Changez encounters Erica, the charming and fascinating undergraduate from Princeton with whom he has a romantic relationship with, but this romance eventually ends when Erica becomes nostalgically obsessed and comes to the realization that she still loves her deceased boyfriend, Chris. Similarly, Changez’s accord with America has the strife of a love affair. At the start of The Reluctant Fundamenalist, Changez loves and adores America, and it seems to love him in return. By the end of the novel, it becomes apparent that both Erica and the United States are too nostalgic for a glorified, fabled past to compensate Changez’s feelings of love or patriotism. Feeling rejected, Changez abandons Erica, as he also abandons America and makes his way home to Pakistan.
  - - - In The Bluest Eye it is shown that people with more money tend to have more power. Even in black communities, those with money are typically more lightskinned and are therefore more respected by the community.
    - - In the story, Changez is in dire need of money. As a result, he chooses to work multiple jobs. Later in the book, his boss also discovers that Changez is also very poor and tells him a story about how he himself used to be poor and work multiple jobs. As a result, Changez's boss atempts to help him.
  - - - In The Bluest Eye, the black characters endure intense discrimination a white dominated society. An example of this was when Pecola was in the candy store. Pecola was barely acknowledged by the white cashier: “He does not see her, because there is nothing to see. How can a fifty-two-year-old white immigrant storekeeper with the taste of potatoes and beer in his mouth, his mind honed on the Virgin Mary, his sensibilities blunted by a permanent awareness of loss, see a little black girl?” This discrimination instills a sense of shame within its recepients, and in this case, the black community as a whole.
    - - This method of killing small babies soon after they are born shows how dishonorable birthing a baby girl in Chinese society. Women are expected to perform their roles as dutiful housewives whose sole purpose is to raise children and perform housework. Kingston describes this life as one of a “slave”. She later reflects on her childhood and the way her parents would treat both her and her sister, stating “My mother’s enthusiasm for me is duller than for the slave girl...Throughout my childhood my younger sister said, “when I grow up, I want to be a slave,’ and my parents laughed, encouraging her” (Kingston 83). Chinese women are forced into the mindset of slavery at a very early age, starting from the way that their parents raise them. What Kingston’s younger sister thinks as a joke, her parents outright expect her to perform the work of a slave for the rest of her life.
- - - - This essay explains that while melancholia and morning may seem very similar at a first glance, they are in fact, very different. Contrary to mourning, Melancholia is much more serious. The person suffering from it will often have a much bigger loss and be consumed by grief. Racial melancholia is due to the mistreatment of people of color by white people and this harm causes a racial divide that continues to this day.
    - - Mourning and Melancholia is an essay written by Sigmund Freud that defines Mourning and melancholia as very similar emotions that both deal with the idea of loss. Freud however argues that they are drastically different because mourning is a healthy process of how people cope with a significant loss. Once a person recovers from mourning, they are more or less back to normal. Melancholia on the other hand as Freud defines it is considered an unhealthy and even disease like emotion. Melancholia is almost exactly like mourning unlike in mourning, the perrson never recovers an is consumed by the depths of the depression.
    - - In Shame and Its Sisters, Silvan Tomkins analyzes the effects and roots of shame. If not properly dealt with, shame can eventually lead to contempt in oneself and eventually an uncontrollable disease called Melancholia. Melancholia is defined as a severe depression stemming from the loss of a significant piece of oneself. "The individual can be shamed by whatever shames another. This one, in turn, will have transmitted a shame may have learned from someone else’s shame response to him.”
  - - - In The Bluest Eye, the black characters endure intense discrimination a mostly white society. In the story, Pecola is approached by a white candy cashier at a small candy shop: “He does not see her, because there is nothing to see. How can a fifty-two-year-old white immigrant storekeeper with the taste of potatoes and beer in his mouth, his mind honed on the Virgin Mary, his sensibilities blunted by a permanent awareness of loss, see a little black girl?” This discrimination instills a sense of shame within its recipients, and in this case, the black community as a whole.
  - - - On one occasion, they quote describes an instance in which the three women manipulate a man: “they lured a Jew up the stairs, pounced on him, all three, held him up by the heels, shook everything out of his pants pockets, and threw him out of the window” (Morrison 56). Similarly to men taking advantage over the weaker feminine counterparts, the three whores influence and exploit the men in their lives. In this case, it happens to be a poor Jewish man.
    - - In Twilight, Los Angeles, summarizes how many riots broke out against the dropped police brutality and beating charges that were happening in LA. As a result, the McCone Commission were forced respond in order to retain their honor and to "save face". Consequently, an initiative was created to better the quality of living in the black community ghettoes. This riot followed urban race riots of the 1960s and was a testament of how much farther the United States had to go to expunge racism from its roots.
    - - In “Moving Politics” , Deborah Gould illustrates the famous American ACT UP movement, and its consequent rise to influence. Moving Politics follow the theme of anger due to the fact that the community is upset because there is a lack of attention on the topic about how AIDS affects both white people and people of color. The fact is AIDS is indiscriminate, affecting people of all races and colors. However, the people that attain the least amount of support are people of the LGBTQ+ community. As a result, the community is angry with protesters that demand a spotlight on an issue affecting innocent bystanders.
    - - The text “Representations of Whiteness in the Black Imagination” describes the effects of blacks living in a predominantly white society. Throughout the text, there is also a lingering theme of how black people understand the triumphs of white people. Whites are unable to understand the struggles of black people due to the fact that the dominant force in American society has always been white. On the other hand, black people have been forced to change their legacies and heritages to adapt.
    - - Martha Nussbaum describes the power of anger to rally support politically. Those who are angry tend to feel empowered by their anger; however, this power is inherently destructive. The destruction that comes from anger can be misdirected, hurting unintended targets, which makes anger dangerous. Anger is an easy emotion for people to latch onto, though grief may be a better response to certain situations.
    - - The Reluctant Fundamentalist follows the story of a Pakistani Princetonian who feels alienated by his American colleagues and shunned by his surrogate nation after 9/11. Pre 9/11, Changez is the victim of microaggressions on a daily basis, constantly being labeled as “exotic.” However, after the incidents of 9/11, this takes a dramatic turn and Changez becomes the victim to open discrimination, which leads to deep feelings of resentment. For instance, at an airport, Changez feels as though he is being treated less than human when he is detained by TSA. Later he leaves America to go help his home country, Pakistan, to preach against America and its racist institutions.