Blog Post #4 Prompt#2:

“Diving into the Wreck” is an explicit description of exploring a wrecked ship. I think the poem is an extended metaphor for going out and doing things yourself. With the expedition representing the push and the struggle, while the ship is serving as the goal you may have. Definitely, the author's language plays a huge role in conveying this message. The author seems to be determined to achieve his goal when he says “... the thing I came for: the wreck and not the story of the wreck the thing itself and not the myth…”.  Many times people just talk about their ambitions or their dreams and never really do anything about them because the thought of it is satisfying enough or they're too scared or don't want to put in the work. However the narrator wants the real thing, and I think he is trying to set an example to motivate us to never settle for the imitation of what you want.  When the narrator says  “I am having to do this not like Cousteau with his assiduous team aboard the sun-flooded schooner but here alone”.  It tells me that the narrator wants to be different and attempt this with no help. He wants to do it alone because he doesn't want to cheat himself. If he is going to complete his goal he wants to say that he did it, not because of any one person, but because he was capable enough to do it himself. However, there are consequences to going solo. The narrator states“...there is no one to tell me when the ocean will begin.” It is tough because he has no guidance, no one to fall back on but yourself. Nonetheless, the extra challenge makes it that much more fulfilling when you beat the odds.  Once you attain your goal it is easy for things to change as the narrator asserts  “And now: it is easy to forget what I came for among so many who have always lived here swaying their crenelated fans between the reefs and besides you breathe differently down here.” Which implies that once people attain their objective it is easy to be influenced by your success. It almost sounds like a warning to be cautious and to remember where you came from.  Throughout the entire poem, the author is referring to a goal he is trying to accomplish by using the exploration of the wrecked ship as a metaphor. And how the narrator keeps saying that “...I have to learn alone …”, which indicates that what he is doing is personal to him, which is relatable because a lot of goals or aspirations people have are very personal. This poem can be applied to many life situations whether it be obtaining simple goals or ambitious objectives, but the point is getting out there and actually doing it.

Blog #4 topic #4

        As a first generation American (I came to the United States when I was three years old) I have experienced some of the problems faced by the characters of Maxine Hong Kingston’s “The Woman Warrior: Memoirs of a Girlhood Among Ghosts.” However when reading this story I found myself particularly frustrated with the story and with Kingston.

When I started kindergarten, I did not understand English. The only words I knew on my first day of school were: yes, no, and thank you. I do not criticize the silence of the girls in the story, as I understand what it feels to not understand anything. In my experience, I strived to learn English, to make friends, and try to be better than my classmates at math. I did not have any family or people close to me to guide me or help me. However, the teachers were very nice and supportive. I remember in first grade, when my class was learning the “th” sound, and when the teacher saw I was not able to say it right, she stopped the class and knelt down by me and for a few minutes made me try to use my tongue the right way until I was able to say the “th” sound correctly. I remember how happy and proud I was, and how for the rest of the day, I would show of how I could say “th.” I am frustrated at the way Kingston portrays the “Americans” in the story, and fails to acknowledge their kind efforts. I have experienced this country to be a true “land of immigrants” and a real “land of opportunity.” I have felt the way the government and specifically schoolteachers went out of their way to help kids like me. 

Kingston’s story of the mother forcing the girl to go to the pharmacist and force him to give her candy is ridiculous. I am not familiar with the Chinese culture and their superstitions, However I feel that any sane person would not act the same way the mother did. No matter what her superstitions were, the mother was in a whole different country, “everything” works differently here. In her case the people in this new country look, speak, dress, eat, and act differently than what she is used to. If one were to consider that she is the minority, in reality she would not come here and try to force things to work her way, she would need to make herself compatible to the way of life here. 

If I were to write a story about Immigrant experiences, I would make it more realistic. In my case, I feel that there would still be many “touching” stories without having to exaggerate or be ridiculous. In my story, I would write about people labeling me as a Russian, when I was in fact from Western Ukraine, a place that has a history of being used, oppressed, and culturally destroyed by Russians. People with my background typically hate Russia, Russians, and the Soviet Union and are very bitter about the history in that region. I remember myself constantly arguing with people that Russia and Ukraine are NOT the same thing. 

Every culture has its own identity, history and experiences. Immigrant experiences, for various reasons are different for each culture. I do recognize that I may have misunderstood Kingston, and what this story was intended for. I hope to find more stories of immigrant experiences and compare them, or perhaps even write my own. 

Blog Post #4 Topic 4

Being a first generation college student, I know the struggles that both Maxine Hong Kingston as well as Sandra Cisneros went through in their lives. From the interactions with people and them having expectations as to what they expect of you. Kingston allows for the interpretation of others perspectives in their encounters with people while Cisneros delves more into her daily life being similar to others.

For Kingston, in her novel Women Warrior, she decides to show her life through the eyes of her younger self. Her self that is not as mature nor knowledgeable about the experiences she went through. Her self that only saw the experiences as events rather than as experiences where she took information from. In her case, I do believe that portraying her life events this way will give a different view on what she went through but in my opinion it breaks from any really lesson she may want to portray. Since readers see the story from the perspective of a young child, themes that are more serious such as indoctrination and assimilation seem less intimidating than they actually are to others. I have seen my peers struggle to adapt because of the language barrier that they were forced to learn if not suffer consequences. Fortunately for me, I adapted with the English language eventually because my school "helped" me learn but also knowing my background. In Kingston's novel, she does include how she felt but at times some parts seem irrelevant to understanding why she would include them. For example, when she decided to bully the young girl because it annoyed Kingston that the little girl was not at the same level of socializing. Still, this event may seem irrelevant to understanding the problems that appear with being part of a different culture than the norm. Still, with her inclusion of these events, it goes to show that these are events she found important to finding happiness or rest when she was facing other issues.

 For Cisneros, she is similar to Kingston. They both have elements in their stories that show their character developments but never truly explain why such event may be deemed as important. To them, it seems that these events are what made their experiences unique. To Kingston, her sense of time changes from time gaps to leaps whereas Cisneros goes in a more chronological order with a relative speed of sharing the tale. In this way, Cisneros has the ability for readers to focus on characters and grow with them. As they discover the mysteries of the people and situations around them, the reader is also learning the environment perceived by the narrator girl. I find that by giving character development to multiple characters gives a more realistic vibe to the story where not just one character gets developed. I find that by being involved with others who shared a similar story with me and had experiences that made us grow, it made me comprehend different ways of life than just me experiences them. For example, when my peers explained that they were having trouble understanding basic American culture ideas, I would understand and we would not feel as estranged.

Therefore, though Cisneros and Kingston do go about telling their stories through similar yet different ways, they both attempt to show that their experiences despite being almost irrelevant or strange is what makes them unique. I find that by sharing their encounters, it distinguishes their voices from the typical literature.

Blog 4 Topic 4

I am a first generation immigrant. I moved to the United States 3 years ago in 2013 and have only had the chance to visit home, the Philippines, twice. I cannot fully sympathize to the “normal” struggle of many immigrants in the US considering that I grew up bilingual and had, sort of, better circumstances than a lot of other immigrants. I can however sympathize to some aspects of their lives in a different way.

Maxine Hong Kingston tells how she “spoils [her] day with self disgust when [she] hears [her] own voice come skittering out into the open,” and “it makes people wince to hear it.” In the same respect I had a hard time adjusting to the accent that Americans have but over time I was able to speak with their accent enough that they could properly understand what I was saying without having to repeat myself more than twice. I sympathize with the effort it takes to have to, in a way, learn to speak again because society doesn’t understand what you’re saying even if you’re speaking their language. Unfortunately for her she had to learn a new language altogether since at home they did not speak English. I on the other hand had already known English and I had also moved to the US at a much older state than she did. Much like her, “I didn’t know Americans don’t drink out of saucers.” It wasn’t exactly that fact that I didn’t know, but in the same way I didn’t know that they did things so differently in America. Growing up in the Philippines one could/would eat with their hands and have dinner with their family all the time. In America, I found that it’s somewhat unacceptable to eat with your hands and many families don’t even eat meals together. The culture change was something to get used to since standing out isn’t the best way to stay hidden in a place where you don’t know what to do.

I also share the same feelings with Sandra Cisneros as she writes in her story “Woman Hollering Creek” about  basing life off of what we see on the television. To be clear, in my own experience there are things that are spot on when it comes to TV mimicking real life and some things that don’t happen at all. The main character in the story, Cleofilas, was basing her life in America after the kind of life “the books and songs and telenovelas describe when one finds, finally, the great love of one’s life, and does whatever one can, must do, at whatever the cost.” Much like her, I had expectations to live a life that I saw on TV, whether it be something like “Glee”, “Gossip Girl”, or some other TV show. But, like a big surprise to the both of us, life was nothing like that of what we saw on TV or read in books. Of course I wasn’t expecting there to be any singing and dancing but the type of lives the characters lived, filled with drama and excitement, was something I was hoping for and wanted to live. Cleofilas wanted a love that could only be reached by someone being played in a movie or on TV and was destroyed when she realized that life wasn’t a reality show waiting for the host to spice it up.

I may not know what the hardest struggles are when it comes to being an immigrant, but I do know what it is to miss your family that now live thousands of miles away, I know what it’s like to have to change the way you live to be accepted by a society that never really wanted you in the first place, and I know what it’s like to have to leave everything you know behind to go to an unfamiliar place for “better opportunities.” Unlike most immigrant stories that have people that don’t speak English or people that believe everything they see on TV, I want an immigrant story about the immigrant that already knows how to speak English and doesn’t believe everything they see on TV but still knows the struggles. I came here knowing English and knowing that life isn’t always what you see on TV but I had my own struggle that I had to go through that many people don’t always seem to realize.

Blog 4: Diving into the Wreck

During the late 1900’s, women writers, authors, and poets strived to make a presence for themselves in a men-dominated area. During this time, Adrienne Rich committed herself to the women’s movement despite a tough past. After years of marriage with her husband, Rich struggled with womanly expectations and left her husband; unfortunately, her ex-husband committed suicide a few years later and Rich came out as lesbian. The poem “Diving into the Wreck” is a metaphor for Rich’s unfortunate and confusing past. The wreck symbolizes Rich’s divorce and the tragic death of her husband while the dive represents the act of looking at the past.

One of the main components of the poem, the dive, is a metaphor for looking back at the past and deciding to take the journey to revisit those painful times of loneliness. The ladder in the poem represents the decision to take the trip to the past. Rich writes that the option to explore the past has always been an option, “The ladder is always there, hanging innocently.” Rich uses personification to show that the ladder is innocuous but also has the capability to transport people to a different place. As the person in the poem decides to go down the ladder, emotions of loneliness and fear are pronounced. Rich writes, “my flippers cripple me, I crawl like an insect down the ladder and there is no one to tell me when the ocean will begin.” For Rich, the option to finally look into her past is a difficult and completely individual journey. Taking the dive to explore what’s under the surface shows Rich’s hesitation with exploring her past.

The image of the wreck in the poem represents the suffering in Rich’s past from her divorce, husband’s suicide, and the decision to come out as a lesbian. Once the person in the poem enters the water, she says, “you breathe differently down here,” which signifies how exploring the past causes a big impact. Rich writes, “I came to see the damage that was done and the treasures that prevail.” Though Rich’s past was tragic, she explored the damage, to look for the benefits of the prevailing “treasures” or to possibly see the mistakes that were made. Some of the treasures that Rich could be referring to include coming out; if she had never divorced her husband, she never would have changed her sexual identity as a lesbian. As Rich continues through her past, she makes a point to nature, “we are the half-destroyed instruments that once held to a course the water-eaten log the fouled compass.” This shows that we are helpless against nature. Though the compass was to direct the ship to the final destination, nature changed course and the ship and compass sunk to the bottom of the ocean. Though Rich was probably expecting to live a normal life with her family, nature intervened and changed the course of her life.

Although Adrienne Rich’s later years of her life were content, her tragic few years were represented in “Diving into the Wreck.” The language in the poem points to a conceit of her divorce, husband’s suicide, and gender identity change. Exploring the past is proven to be a challenge for Rich, but is a necessity to see the good that came out of awful situations.          

Blog Post 4 Topic 2

“Diving into the Wreck” by Adrienne Rich is a free verse poem that is about a diver who explores a wreck in the ocean. Although the poem may seem to be on a diver’s experience, the poem uses this experience as a conceit, or an extend metaphor, on the Vietnam War.

Before her dive into the ocean, the narrator loads a camera and wears “body armor.” The body armor she talks about can be a wetsuit for diving. However, the way she refers to the suit as “body armor” implies that this armor may be the flak jackets soldiers wore during the Vietnam War. The narrator also mentions loading a camera, which indicates that the narrator may be a photographer. With a camera and body armor, the narrator may be a war photographer sent to Vietnam, to record the events of the war. She then descends “a ladder” into the ocean. Assuming this poem is related to the Vietnam War, the ladder can be the ladder on a helicopter that allows soldiers to dismount the helicopter when the helicopter cannot find a suitable area to land. Upon descending the ladder, she reaches the ocean.

The “ocean” the narrator refers to is Vietnam because the ocean is often associated with the vastness and the unknown. Likewise, Vietnam is a foreign place filled with vegetation and lurking threats. Another reason the narrator may be referring to Vietnam is that the narrator describes the place as “First… blue… then green, and then black.” This can refer to the scenery of Vietnam. The narrator first sees the blue sky, then the green vegetation, and then the black smoke from all the battles and fires. She then talks about a mask pumps her blood with power, which can be referring to the rush of adrenaline she experiences as she witnesses the events of the war. The narrator then adds that “it is easy to forget what I came for among so many who have always lived here” Perhaps the narrator can be criticizing the pointlessness of the war.

As the narrator arrives at the “wreck,” she mentions that she came for “the thing itself and not the myth.” In the beginning of the poem, the narrator reads “the book of myths,” which can symbolize the misconceptions that the Vietnam War is the fight for democracy in Vietnam. The narrator is looking for the truth of the war. She soon realizes the truth that the war is pointless and is just a blood bath. The narrator illustrates the scene before her, “the drowned faces always staring toward the sun… the ribs of disaster.” She then says that “we circle silently about the wreck… I am she: I am he,” The narrator may be saying that both men and women are united in opposition to the war. Finally, the narrator ends with “the one who find our way back to this scene… our names do not appear.” The narrator talks about how no one in the future will remember the terrible things that happened during the war and history will repeat itself. With numerous parts of the poem symbolizing aspects of the Vietnam War, it is likely Adrienne Rich uses “Diving into the Wreck” to express her stance on the war.

BLOG POST 4

“The Woman Warrior: Memoirs of a Girlhood Among Ghosts” written in 1976 by Maxine Hong Kingston focuses on the stories of five different women. The focus of this blog will be on the memoir of Kingston as a young girl who had just immigrated to the United States of America with her family. The story is written in first person narrative and contains a lot of anecdotes that portray a young Chinese girl’s early experiences in the United States.  I sympathize with Kingston because as an immigrant, I have been through similar cultural changes and experiences. Through first person narrative and the use of anecdotes Kingston delivers an emotionally provoking story and successfully depicts an accurate account of an immigrant’s tough early years in a Western country.

Kingston gets an emotional response from the reader (especially readers who are immigrants) with her use of first person anecdotes in this memoir. By being placed in Kingston’s shoes we can see with a clearer lens, the struggle immigrants must go through to adapt to the United States. For the readers, like myself, who are/have been immigrants, this experience is relatable and thus we can sympathize with Kingston.  “She opened her mouth and a voice came out that wasn’t a whisper but it wasn’t a proper voice either. “An aspect of everyday life that an immigrant has to adapt to, is language. We see in this passage that a classmate of Kingston’s, is so frightened to speak because of the fear of making mistakes. The unfortunate reality Kingston is exposing is the criticism immigrants usually get for not being adept at speaking English. Since we are put in Kingston’s shoes, we can sympathize with her for the hardship she faces because we see the true fear and pressure put on the children to speak in a language that’s not even their own.

Furthermore, this can be extended to a metaphorical representation of western societies urging immigrants to speak and possess similar character traits to them. Immigrants usually get condemned for either not being fluent in English or speaking the language with a different accent. It is assumed that it is always an immigrant’s choice to leave their country and that they should be willing to fully adapt with ease to the way things work in the country they move to. Most of the time political and economic turmoil is what pushes immigrants from their countries.

Having experienced similar encounters to Kingston, I fully sympathize with her. Three years ago, I went to boarding school in the United Kingdom and although I was fluent in English, my accent was noticeably different from everyone around me. I got laughed at or asked why I said certain words and phrases in a different way, thus showing the pressure for immigrants to fully adapt to the new culture they live in. From a reader response approach, I feel that Kingston is criticising society for the lack of accommodation and understanding for different cultures. Although this was much more prominent in the 1970s, I feel that this issue is still very much alive in the western societies that exist today.