Emmy's Blogs

Quotes from Meatless Days by Sara Suleri: “Yet I was shocked. It was my mother, after all, who had told me that sweetbreads are sweetbreads, and if she were wrong on that score, then how many other simple equations had I now to doubt?” (p.731) “What I had really wanted to reply, first to Tillat and then to my Pakistani friends, was: yes, of course, who do you think I am, what else could they possibly be? Anyone with discrimination could immediately discern the connection between kapura and their namesake […]” (p.735)      Sara has a complicated relationship with food. The first sentence of the story confused me a bit then I understood as I kept reading. She felt devised by her mother that she had been lied to about what she was eating. Sara had trust in her mother out of all people in the world would be the last person to lie to her. I could sort of relating to this because growing up my mom would do the same thing for my favorite soup. She told me New England Chowder sou...

  Quotes from  Dairy  by Sylvia Plath: “I have an inner fight that won’t be conquered by a motto or one night’s resolution” (p.666). “A day in the life—such a gray grit, I feel apart from myself, split, a shadow, and yet when I think of what I have taught and what I will teach, the titles have still a radiant glow and the excitement and not the dead weary plod of today” (p.669).      After reading these writings from Sylvia’s diary I could clearly see she was struggling in the first part of her teaching students. She wrote this first diary entry to a demon which I believe was the demon she was fighting with inside herself. Sylvia was struggling to talk about her fears and miseries in fear of making it worse for herself. She works really hard to keep going through life, but she looks at it in a negative light. Sylvia even says, “No more knuckling under, groaning, moaning: one gets used to the pain. This hurts. Not being perfect hurts” (p.666). She feels stuc...

 Quotes that stuck out to me while reading From Nisa: The Life and Words of a !Kung Woman: “My older brother said, ‘Mother, don’t punish her today. You’ve already hit her too many times. Just leave her alone […]’ “(p. 644). “I thought, ‘Am I going to give birth today? I am only a child. How am I going to give birth? Will I be afraid?’ “(p.653).      Nisa was constantly reprimanded as a child for everything she was doing wrong in her parents’ eyes. She was constantly crying. I think her crying was a want for the attention she felt that she did not fit into any part of the family as a middle child. She couldn’t have her mother’s attention because her focus was on the new baby. Nisa also was not allowed to go hunting for food with her brother and father. I believe she would steal and go against her parents’ ideas because she wanted attention from them even if it was negative. She was constantly beaten by her mother and father when she was so thin and fragile.  ...

     Isak portrayed a strong relationship with animals during her time living in Africa. She builds a connection with a particular antelope she named Lulu. Since Isak lost her husband and just had the company of her household works she treated Lulu like her daughter, a part of the family. As Lulu grew up, she started leaving Isak’s house for longer periods of time. As one of the household boys said to Isak when referring to Lulu, “‘But she has not forgotten the people; most mornings she is coming back to the house’” (p.225). It was hard for Isak when she found out Lulu was married to a male bushbuck and came back only a few times. She said that she knew deep down that Lulu was an independent and strong female. As Isak explained about Lulu, “It also seemed to me that the free union between my house and the antelope was rare, honourable thing” (p.227). She held on to that relationship because she rescued Lulu and raised her as her own daughter.       Ano...

From Totto-Chan by Tetsuko Kuroyanagi: “This famous old Kabuki play was not exactly what you would expect to see at Tomoe, but it was in one of their textbooks and Mr. Maruyama would coach them” (p.470). “Cleaning up the writing rhythms was quite a job. […] It was an enormous task” (p.473). “Ryo-chan was a sort of guardian angel who always came to the rescue when anyone was in trouble” (p.474).      I thought these various stories were interesting to read. First with the play I was interested in how they were re-enacting a play from a textbook. I think the reason for this is teaching the children in this way is visually seeing what happened rather than reading it. The second one, I believe allowing the kids to use chalk on the floors to teach them music rhythms was a great idea by the headmaster. This enabled students to be creative and do something special twice a week while also teaching them. This activity solved the issue of students wanting to vandalize other’s walls...

     Compared to the other women’s stories we have read this story from Logan was like a breath of fresh air. I say breath because this is what she helped women to focus on during the contractions. It was a beautiful calming story of her being a midwife to mothers giving birth. I enjoyed reading about how it was a full experience for Logan. She left time at the beginning of the contractions as she explained “That the mother and daddy are together quietly by themselves at the beginning of the labor until labor get so severe” (p. 484). Then they would call her, and she would be on her way. Onnie relied on the help of God at the end of the process. As Logan said, “The contractions leave awhile completely. That’s God’s way. That’s what I love about it. Give mother time to rest between the contractions. This is a beautiful point about it” (p.489). She trusted her process and believed this is what God’s intentions were for her and the births of the babies.      T...

     After reading about Genia’s imprisonment I found it to be different than the other women we had read about. Genia was able to interact with several women of all ages who were in there with her. The cells she entered into as she said “[…] had a large window, with a grating of course, but the screen behind it was not of wood but a frosted glass. There were collapsible beds instead of a single plank bed; the enormous slop bucket in the corner had a tightly fitting lid” (p. 303). Genia even found a friend, Nushik, from her college days eight years prior. They were able to talk and even when they were separated Genia was placed in a cell with numerous other women they were able to interact with each other. She heard their stories and did not answer any of the questions they asked about the world outside this prison. For one she had been imprisoned for more months than them, so she had no idea what they were referring to when they asked about the trial. Second, she was war...