Blog # 6

The Book of Salt written by Monique Truong is a piece that is well written in that in the story, there are two stories going on at once. One part is of Binh telling of his present life at 27 rue de fleurs. The other part is Binh explaining why he left for Paris to begin with. I liked this book for many reasons and one was because of the character development throughout the novel. Binh transforms throughout the novel and ends up confessing that he is gay. Being in a family of four boys, his father bans him from the household and is forced out. His father is also very abusive and it troubles Binh. He leaves and heads to the sea and ends up in Paris. The lines, “I wanted the deepest water because I wanted to slip into it and allow the moon’s reflection to swallow me whole”- are my favorite lines describing how he felt. Frustrated and confused, he tries to get a hold of reality and reminisces about the past. Another reason I enjoyed this book because it was very personal coming from the view of Binh and describing his life, while he finds out things about himself reminiscing about the past. I also like the emotion portrayed. Some of the events such as his father beating him were intense. The lines, “A stick of wood thicker than my arm splintered into my skin” is an example of the pain he endured from his father. The title of the story, “The Book of Salt” to me represents everything in this novel. The salt referring to the sea that he traveled, working in the kitchen, the pain he endured from his father, the emotion of sadness in his life. This story to me also seems like a confession in a way. It is very personal in that Binh’s real journey starts when he was little and forced out of the house. He has to fend for himself and start a new life. His sexuality is questioned and is taken in by two lesbian women. They all embody the same thing. This book intrigues me because I could never imagine having being banned from my own house and forced to live on my own. The sadness and anger in Binh lives while growing up. He questions his faith in the story and thinks that there is no hope. Overall I really enjoyed reading this and thought it was very well written. There was not one part I thought that was confusing. I thought the other characters in the story were important but didn’t overshadow the main character Binh. The voice in the story is important and think that if it would have been told in another point of view, it might have been confusing. I like stories that are more personal and draw the reader in making it feel like they are apart of it. This has by far been my favorite book and thought all of the issues dealing with abandonment, faith, hope, and sexuality tied into a wonderful and intense story to read.

blog #5

The book The Heartsong of Charging Elk, to me represents the innerness and changing view of how people of different cultures interact. This book presents itself in a way that not only captures the true meaning of identity, but allows the reader to actually feel what the characters are going through in the novel. The character of Charging Elk struggles when he is left behind in France by his traveling show and is confined to a hospital due to influenza. He is then taken prisoner in the country and is forced to live a life outside of his culture. He is thrown into a situation that is not familiar to him and ends up meeting a prostitute and has an affair with her. He also gets wrapped up in a murder scandal and is thrown in jail. His life is everything but normal and he himself gets lost in himself and cannot seem to find who he is. This story has some unusual turn of events, but it kept me wanting to read further. I have never read a book by James Welch but found his writing to be interesting. His characterization in each character has a unique style to them. I have not read a lot about the different tribes that settled in South Dakota so it was a learning experience to read about them. The setting of the novel sets the tone for the story and South Dakota is the ideal place for the western- mid American culture. I don’t think this book could’ve been written in another setting. In the book it is interesting to see references to Crazy Horse which is now a main culture identifier of South Dakota. I have visited Crazy Horse and found it to be fascinating. I think it is important, especially for the people that live in South Dakota to know where their roots came from and how this land was brought to be. Tapping into periods of time that not many cross the minds of people now, it is fascinating to look at. Having lived in South Dakota my whole life, growing up I didn’t appreciate the history and culture, but now as Im learning and reading more about it inside and out of school, the appreciation has grown. The beginning of the book gave a lot of background to the story and it was easier to read. There were a lot of characters to keep track of and remember, but each had their trait that were memorable.

Spring Break Extra Credit Blog

The novels we have read in class all deal with identity and in some form all tie into each other. It seems like there is always conflict with a character that has trouble finding them and by the end of the story, they have found meaning in who they truly are. It is interesting to me to see the breakdown of each character and what obstacles they have to overcome in order to achieve success. All of the characters in Another Country, seem to all “feel” a certain way. Eric “feels” that he is homosexual and Rufus “feels” he is black living in a white person’s world. They are all tied together in that they don’t realize they all feel strongly about what really exists. They all believe they live in different worlds when in reality, they are all struggling to find who they really are. Rufus has the most trouble finding who he is because he deals with issues on a deeper and eventually it gets to him so much that he ends up killing himself. The setting in New York City is interesting because when you think of a big city, you think of all the different kinds of people and culture. The issue of race back then was heavily affected. In the story, Rufus encounters a police officer coming out of the restaurant and the police officer stares him down. Rufus gets discriminated because of his color. Another scene in the story is when he is walking with Leona and Vivaldo and a young couple walks by and stares at Leona wondering which man was with her. One of the more serious scenes is when Vivaldo comes over to Rufus’s place and Leona has been beaten by Rufus. Leona says that Rufus thought she was looking at other black men. Rufus’s insecurities lead him down a path of sadness and hate. His friendship also is tested when Vivaldo suggests that Leona stay with him until Rufus figures himself out. Rufus accuses him of stealing his girl. All of the struggles in this story deals with individuality but at the same time, everyone is going through the same thing. . Reading this story also gave me a new perspective on the issue of class. Cass and Richard seem to be on a path of success with Richard’s new book, but Cass doesn’t like the things it comes with like all the dinner parties and all the fancy people that come over. Also the issue of moving is brought up and Richard wants to move, but Cass wants them to stay in the city. Although Cass and Richard have the most in common, they are the ones that have a lot of conflict. This was one of the best stories I have read and enjoyed analyzing and comparing the characters and tying into our class and the issue of identity. There comes a point in everyone’s life where their identity is tested whether it be a relationship, family, or friends. It seems as you get older your values stay the same but what changes is your identity.

Blog #4

I found the author Lois-Ann Yamanaka to be quit interesting in her writing and enjoyed reading about her life. She realized when she was teaching and observing her students write poetry that she too wanted to write creatively. Going back to school, she became “one of the state’s best novelists, as well as a vocal proponent of Hawaiian Creole English.” Her writing I found was controversial and very personal wrapped in emotion. Her first novel entitled Wild Meat and the Bully Burgers was “nominated for the AAAS literature award.” Other pieces of writitng that was nominated for the award, but was considered contriversial was the story called Pahala Theatre and also her second novel Blu’s Hanging. The passages of the stories gave reference to racism and the “award committee decided to issue no prize that year.” In Blu’s Hanging there is a scene where Blu, the young boy of the three children, gets raped by the next door neighbor guy who is Filipino. This controversial and intense emotional scene was too much for some people to read. I thought some of the passages in the book were real and gruesome and violent. The three Ogata children are devastated by the death of their mother and the oldest child, Ivah, tries to keep the family together. Their father withdrawls and secludes himself from the children and goes into a state of unstability. Because of the death of the mother, “Blu is propelled into increasingly insidious relationships by his flamboyant imagination and uncontainable need for love.” Some of the issues that the book dealt with like racism and cruel punishment to animals and children was hard to read. I didn’t like that the dogs were only allowed to go out once a week and kept locked up. The kids had to go over and clean the dirty infested room. Parts of the book was hard to understand because it was written in Pidgin, “which is spoken by many of the islands’ working- class residents.” I had mixed feelings about this novel because I don’t know what it is like to lose a parent and raise your siblings pretty much by yourself, but I can’t imagine it is easy. Ivah is still a child herself at 13 and having to take over and assume responsibility for her younger siblings is difficult. She doesn’t get to live a normal childhood and has to grow up fast. Another part of her life is hurt when her father blames Ivah for Blu getting raped. “The tension between Ivah and her father stemming from the rape is indicative of a thematic preoccupation in Yamanaka’s works with Japanese-American father-daughter relations.” She “explores the emotional distancing, elisions, and reticence.” It must have been hard for Ivah to know that her own father was not there for her and to blame her for soemthing she had no control over. This story is filled with emotion and that’s what kept me reading because the issues were so real. This story was one of the best novel’s I have read and found it to be extroadinary. Dealing with the Hawaiian culture, it was interesting to read something new and different!