Prompt #3

January 22, 2018

Dear Beli,

What was your attitude towards everything going on in your country with the dictator and people around you? Based on what I read on footnotes on pg. 83, I believe you would have said that you didn't care for what others said and believed in yourself and in your own rights. The footnotes talks about the Marital Sisters "from Saucedo who resisted Trujillo, and were murdered for it... don't take shit from nobody, even a Trujillo." These sisters were inspiration for people to stand together in solidarity against the dictator. After the death of the sisters, people knew enough was enough. 

How did you get through all the violence and Trujillo physically and emotionally? Based on the footnotes I read on pg. 155, I believe you would have said that you were scared but felt like someone was there by your side in spirit watching over you. There are horrifying situations where there were 'peleas' like when Trujillo was "shot at twenty-seven times and a suffering from four hundred hit points of damage." You were always worried about your safety, especially that you were pregnant. I would have been scared too if I grew up with you too.

Sincerely,
Gigi

Prompt #2

In the book, "The Brief and Wondrous life of Oscar Wao" by Junot Diaz, it starts off with a curse known as fuku. As the author states, "that the arrival of Europeans on Hispaniola unleashed the fuku on the world"(Diaz 1). It is hard to believe that curses and bad luck are upon this world and what many others believe. I have heard things like karma, but sometimes things could be a coincidence. The author mentions that Oscar was a ladies man to begin with and had two girlfriends. Later on, his girlfriend dumped him and he felt miserable and alone. Oscar was known as a nerd in high school and liked reading sci-fi and was insecure about himself. "Sophomore year Oscar found himself weighing in at a whopping 245 (260 when he was depressed, which was often) and it had become clear to everybody, especially his family, that he'd become the neighborhood pariguayo"(Diaz 19). He didn't pull any girls anymore, he was antisocial, he became very overweight, and stayed home reading instead of going out to play.
In my personal academic life, I have felt a fuku in myself. All throughout middle school and high school, I was never really good at writing essays. I'd always get a C on my essays, nothing better. I was used to it and didn't even try anymore. I feel some sort of zafa protected me in college because I began to do really good when I was writing my essays and it definitely boosted my confidence. Ever since that happened, I feel like I have become a better writer and take my english classes more seriously.

Prompt #1

Bell hooks writes about authors based on their work and not about their race or sexual orientation. She states that it doesn't matter where you come from or what sexual orientation you are because people should focus more on how influential their writing is. I agree with what she Hooks has to say because I never really put much attention to the authors when reading books throughout school. I feel like some people won't read a book or article based on their race. That's unfair because people haven't even given it a chance to read and could end up really relating to it. Hooks is aware that there are "rarely those who want to insist that it is only great literature that matters willing to acknowledge that in a culture defined and organized around principles of race, gender, and class domination, identity matters simply because structures that silence and shut out are already in place to assault the consciousness of anyone who dares to live by the belief that we are always more than labels"(13). It's important but it's not important. What I mean by this is that professionals will continue to be opinionated and usually will not accept upcoming writers based on their background. It shouldn't be important because writers should be judged by their work.

Another reason why race and gender shouldn't be important is because it isn't their full identity. Just because you are a certain race doesn't mean you are part of the stereotypes. Many writers have gone through meaningful experiences that would change the way they write and change their point of view.   Hooks mentions and author, Jean Toomer, who "had tried to escape the burden of racial identity by passing. Ironically, this choice blocked and deadens his creative imagination"(13).

Syllabus Response 1/9

What I'm looking forward to in class is reading new books and writing about how I relate to them or how they relate to our world now. I think what will be challenging for me is actually reading the book  all the way to the ending. Usually I would just get the book and read the first couple of pages and wouldn't read the rest. I hope to change that about myself.