The idea or theme in the book I read in my book club, The Buddha in the Attic by Julie Otsuka, is about immigrating to America and trying to fit into American society. The book follows these groups of Japanese girls and women who traveled from different parts of Japan to be with their husbands, who they never met, to live better lives, only to find out the husbands were lying about who they were.
There was a lot of focus on throwing away culture and fitting in to American society. I think the book did this to humanize the characters and give details on the culture that was lost and the characters contribute to this idea/theme by reminiscing of their past when they were with their families. They also go over rules they live by which were taught by their mothers. They left to go to America for a better life so they can live more comfortably but end up working on farms and living in poor environments. Then, they talk about not speaking Japanese anymore in order to fit, watching their children grow up to reject their heritage, and destroying their cultural items so they aren't suspected as spies. The book says a lot about the theme of the struggles of moving to America and how there are always hidden costs when it comes to deals and exchanges. There is one example of this, (33) "...we learned to think twice before saying yes and looking into a man's eyes, because in America you got nothing for free." This connects to the how the women and girls went to America thinking they can live in luxury just by marrying but didn't know that the husbands were old and cruel men who lived poorly in farms and they would have to live with loneliness, overwork, illness, and discrimination. I think this theme/idea is important to focus on because I think it's a relevant topic today and is very important to many people in America. Immigration happens all the time with different groups of people and a lot of people, especially immigrant families, have experiences with the effects it has when it comes to loosing their culture and fitting in to American society. I think books about this theme gives the opportunity to have discussions on this topic and the struggles that different groups go through which can lead to better understanding among people of different backgrounds.
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So far, the book's setting mainly took place on the boat that the women and girls are on to get to America to be with their husbands, who they have never met before. The steerage is described as dark and filthy with narrow beds and damp air. They ate the same meals every day laid in bed seasick at night. They also describe their previous lives. They remember the rules they leaned to live by from their mothers to be "good wives." and their dreams of the new life they will live in America.
My thoughts on the story are that it is very dark and depressing. There is a lot of longing for home and just miserable experiences from being on the ship. I really like the author style of writing and I like the little snippets of the girls personal memories and thoughts that are placed all throughout the text. I predict that when the women and girls arrive to America, they won't have the happy life that they were hoping for, considering the foreshadowing the author put into the book and the time period this story takes place. I think setting and theme will be very important because the change in setting is a very important part of the story with it being about immigrating from Japan to America. I think a similar kind of story could of happened somewhere else because a lot of different groups immigrate to America for a lot of different reasons. It could also take place in different time periods like 100 years ago, 50 years ago, or today which gives even more choice and opportunity for different variations of similar stories. The crawling legs reach out to me like a hand, a dark hand with long thin fingers that leave me frozen in fear. I back away slowly as this creature of pure evil crawls on the faded walls and then stops right in front of my face. My stomach churns in disgust as this monster with its beady black eyes extends its eight long legs to attempt to crawl on my face. I run away screaming. I hate spiders.
The sun shone harsh rays of lights that pierced the eyes of those who dared challenge the sun making silhouettes and figures seem like distorted shadows. The barren landscape of dirt and wilted shrubs littered the land and the air tasted of dust and seemed reticent. A lone man with a carriage and horses that appears coeval is seemingly traveling through the wilderness in a circuitously path. The man with his wrinkled, sunburned skin and the carriage was seemingly built from decrepit wood and corroded nails with bits of rust flaking off with each bump the wheels of the carriage made contact with. Like a beam of light. The horses neighed pained sounds as their think bodies carried a carriage full of the one things that everyone feels bereft for. Ice.
"Hey John! Your barns looks really ugly!" shouted the farmer standing across the crimson building constructed from coval wood as old as the farmer shouting from within it. Its a cold afternoon with scattered with wilted fall colored leaves resembling a a clawed hand.
The old red door swings open, bursting with force at the nearly breaking the hinges revealing a gaffer farmer who donned a red habiliment scurried from out his ruby colored property. "Shut up Will! Everyone loves red. Go back to the sea if you love it so much!" schomzed the farmer with a bad deportment. The blue farmer looked taciturn for a moment and said "If you really think everyone here likes red, why don't go convince everyone to paint their barns red?" challenged the blue farmer. "Fine, maybe I will!" the red farmer storms off. John walked to the nearest neighbor who lived in a shabby looking house next to a shabby looking barn. "Hello? Anyone home?" asks John. "Yeah. What do you need?" asks the poor looking farmer. "Just wanted to ask you a question. Do you like red." "I'm okay with it." "How do you feel about painting your barn red?" asks John with a audible wince in his voice. "Why would I do that?" "Well first off its a great color," says John and begins to lean on the wall while touching the rust covered walls, "And it makes the rust look better." Why did pirates bother making prisoners or enemies "walk the plank" instead of just chucking them overboard?
"Arg I hate Jim." says a filthy young man dressed in tattered habiliment. The mob of pirates scrubbed the decks in a puissant sweeps as others climbed tied ropes with in intricate knots to keep the sails in place. The cerulean waters were a clear contrast to the grimy ship that seem to part the waves with it's filth. "Aye. He does nothing but a volatile fool always using lashing out at other crewmen with a rotten deportment. Making us balance on ropes for the Captain's entertainment. That's how I hurt my leg. I heard he threw another one overboard last night." an older peg legged pirate mumbles. "Who?" "Henry by the looks of it. Didn't show up in the dining hall this morning." The younger pirate thinks to himself for a few seconds and says "What if we got rid of of him? Captain doesn't seem to like him much either" "And how do we suppose we do that?" The young pirate grins as he lips pull back to show his decaying teeth, "The Captain loves a good show" "Hey what are you doing?" shouts a fairly well dressed pirate being carried by a crowd of pirates, "Let me go at once!" The pirate pushes him to the side of the ship with a long wooden plank protruding out into the sea. The captain watches from his quarters and smiles in amusement, "Now walk the plank." The topics that were covered in the fishbowl discussion between Natives, Colonists, and Promoters were mainly based on the topics list written on the board which were based on the book American Colonies by Alan Taylor, a book about the colonization of America. I played as Richard Halkuyt, a promoter. I think the class generally performed well. We followed the list of topics while being in character which led to a lot of witty comments and funny arguments. I think my classmates did a very good job being in character because it made the discussion more fun and engaging. I think the fishbowl discussing was great overall.
I think the group that presented their points the most successfully was the Native American group because they brought up more different topics for frequently which caught me of guard and they also did a good job with defending their argument. I think one of the most interesting and important points made in this discussion was the one about how the colonizers burned the natives crops because they burned their crops and there was this whole back and forth between groups harming each other and their property. It helped me realize that this part of history really was a back and forth with this endless cycle of revenge and killing. Nothing really confused me. Some wonderings I still have is about this time period is the personal details of what every group went through. I know that we probably will never know more details of this time period than we already have now but after realizing how the back and forth that happened is comparable to the conflict we have today, I could help but think about the personal details. "Mom, I don't want to eat this." said the little boy in a taciturn voice.
He crossed his arms and looked away from his exasperated mother. She held her hand over her eyes in attempt to be imperturbable. "You're father works in the fields all day tending to cattle and sheep to get you this food for your satiety!" she says as she grabbed a spoonful or dirty slope and grabs the struggling child, "I'm sick of your deportment." The boy kicks and squirms with duress with the eyes of a upset animal. He breaks free. "I'm not eating that!" screamed the boy and sprinted out of the house. The mother could only make out shades of cerulean of his brightly colored shirt from the window. She saw him run though a symposium. She chased after him. The mother scanned the crowd of jaunty people schmoozing and their periphrasis. There was no blue. The mother realized how exigent her situation was. Patterns and connections I noticed during the scavenger hunt at Balboa Park was that I saw a lot of statures and carvings in walls. It was all related to history. The artifacts looked very old.
The artifacts that were the most interesting were the paintings because there the people or subject of that paintings varied from people from different groups to dogs. The scavenger hunt kind of confirmed that it is about history but also made it more broad. The artifacts were from all sorts of different topics. I think evidence I can add to KLEWS chart is paintings, sculptures, and documents. I have questions about what specific history we will be focusing on for this project. I noticed that the curation was very interactive. There was a dress up area and objects to touch. One exhibit looked like a living room with books and couches. I noticed that the story of Peter and the Wolf was presented by one person and was told using household items such as blankets and coats. I appreciate him using the objects and setting it up to create environment and characters. I think the part where the jacket is both the grandfather and the wolf would make kids interested in the story. Its important to keep in mind the audience your product or performance is for. My first impression of 11th Grade is that it seems to be going fine. I look forward to learning new things about history. I am nervous about the rest of the year because I am expecting the workload to get progressively more difficult. I think the topics and activities I have done in class is good. I think some of the reading was a bit long. I enjoyed the activity about the film in class and I learn best from lectures and presentations. I think my strength in Humanities is reading and I would like to improve my writing.
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November 2018
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