Esperanza Rising

I sat down and finished Esperanza Rising in one day. From the beginning I was curious to see what happened to seemingly spoiled rich girl who loved to listen to the earth with her father. Esperanza was a loving child and it was a delight to watch her mature as the novel progressed. When her father dies and Esperanza and her mother decide to travel to California and with Miguel and his family, Esperanza still thinks that she will be taken care of. "Yes, she thought. They could have a home in California. A beautiful home. Alfonso and Hortensia and Miguel could take care of them and they'd be rid of the uncles." (p. 50) Esperanza had no idea what kind of work was ahead of her - she was still a young girl.

During the scene on the train ride to California, I was reminded of my own childhood. My mother made me a yarn doll when I was a girl. Her name was Mashy and I carried her with me everywhere I went for awhile. At home, her place of honor was being tied to a potato masher that acted as a doll stand. My mother made me the doll not because we didn't have the money, but to show me how to appreciate the simple things. The same year my classmates were getting these fancy pony heads on sticks so we could all pay cowboys and indians (although that is probably a whole separate discussion!). Well, my mom took an old sock, stuffed it with rags, drew eyes on it's face and tied it to an old broomstick. I never even knew the difference!

I was a little disappointed in Ramona, Esperanza's mother. Once she got to America, she seemed to be a strong role model for Esperanza. She was a wealthy woman who gave up her wealth because she didn't want to marry a tyrant and escaped with her daughter for a better life - even though it was a harder life. However, once she got sick, she allowed the depression to wash over her and she seemed to stop trying. She couldn't even fight for her daughter. She just became sicker and sicker until she was hospitalized, leaving her young daughter in the hands of friends to fend for herself. I was proud of Esperanza for not being overwhelmed by her own emotions and for being able to have a goal (save money for her grandmoter to come) and for getting done what needed to be done.

I was, however, disappointed in Esperanza during the scene towards the end of the book where she argues with Miguel (on p. 222). Miguel was appreciative that his life was better in America than it had been in Mexico. He realized that he had no opportunities in Mexico to grow - he would always be pigeon holed as a second-class citizen. In America he knew that he had more of an opportunity to break out of that mold and move forward. Esperanza couldn't see that - she could only complain that life was still hard. And don't get me wrong, some of her arguments were valid, but her life was so much better NOT being in Mexico that she couldn't even see it. She had no hope left in Mexico. Her tyrannical family aggressively took everything away from her and her mother after her father died. And she had things even better than most when her father was alive, but she was lucky that her father was a benevolant land owner. Most people were not so lucky living in Mexico - that is why they fled to America for better opportunities. And it is true that the opportunities weren't always great in America, but they weren't even great for the American people during the Depression.

Overall, I think that this is a great novel to talk about why people come to America hoping for better opportunities, but I still feel that anyone who wants to live in America, should want to be considered an American and live by the American laws and speak English. They don't have to give up their native language or family traditions, but there should be a respect for the country.

Lastly, I thought it was really clever how the chapters were arranged by fruit names. By the end of the novel, Esperanza has come to recognize time not by days or weeks or months, but by which fruit seasons had passed. It all tied back to the image of her lying on the ground listening to heart of the earth with her father and later Miguel.

Sun 2/7/10 Black and White

Black and White by Paul Volponi was a book that really made an impact on me because I tutored a young black man from Newark for several years who used to assist a drug dealer in order to get some extra money. He was a really sweet young man who found himself in some difficult situations. Luckily, there were other circumstances in his life (an educational trust fund set up for him by his late father) so once he got accepted into college, he was able to get out of Newark and start a whole new life for himself. Marcus was not so lucky - he was caught and had to pay the price for his crime.

I was impressed by the maturity of Marcus' character. He really matured throughout the novel and took responsibility for his poor choices. I was disappointed in the character of Eddie who ran away from the consequences of the crime he committed. Both boys were in the car and they both made bad decisions. Marcus was the one who was identified and the one who came from a family with less money. While I was reading this book, I was wondering if Eddie had been the one who had been identified, if Marcus would have acted the same way - avoiding his friend and trying to look innocent. I was also wondering how it would have been different if Marcus was the one who came from money, and Eddie was the one who lived in the projects. Poverty level definitely had something to do with Marcus taking the plea bargain. His mom had to have her sister's put up their houses just to get bail money - they had no extra money for a "good" lawyer. Ms. Torres, the DA, was his only opportunity for representation. He is lucky he got someone who worked out such a short prison term for him. Eddie, on the other hand, held more responsibility in the crime and had a better chance of getting off with out any consequences. I found it interesting that Mr. Parker, a black man, could identify Marcus (who was sitting in the back seat) but not Eddie who was sitting next to him and holding the weapon. I wondered if the victim had been white if he would have been able to identify Eddie and not Marcus.

The different viewpoints and the varying fonts from chapter to chapter was a very clever way to show the two different viewpoints in the novel. This was a way for the reader to experience both boys through their own minds. I think this was also how we could see the division of Marcus and Eddie's friendship. I loved watching Marcus accept the mistakes that he made and face the consequences with a brave face. Eddie, on the other hand, refused to step up and admit his guilt in the crime, and the burden showed on him for everyone to see - including Marcus. "But there was no way he could keep up, dragging everything around with him." Marcus was going off to jail, but he deserved to - he was a good kid, but he made some poor choices. He just got lucky that Mr. Parker didn't die.

Once again, I was happy to see loving "families" represented in a book about teenagers. In The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, Junior had his family and his grandmother and his coach and his team to support him. In this book, both Marcus and Eddie have support, but in slightly different ways. Eddie has a family who loves him (although his father doesn't appear to be able to look him in the eye after he realizes his guilt), and his mother and sister. He also has his relationship with Rebecca and some support from the team. The team, made up of mostly young black men, really support Marcus though - especially X and Moses. Marcus also has his mom and sister, Rose, Jefferson and Coach. I think that Coach would have been more supportive of Eddie too, but Eddie didn't confide in him about anything.

I think this book really brought out the discussion of race/ethnicity. Besides the friendship of "Black" and "White" there are the two security guards, the interracial relationship between Rose and Marcus, the difference in team members on the basketball team --- and many other places to start discussions with a class. I would be interested in what younger readers think about the scene where Eddie accepts St. John's scholarship on the night that Marcus was arrested. Was he right in looking after himself? Or should he have been stronger for his friend? And how deep can friendship really go?

Sun. 1/30/10 Reflections on The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian

I was surprised at how much I enjoyed reading The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie. The character was easy to like and I found myself crossing my fingers with every chapter that things would improve for Junior - the main character. While I was reading this book, I took notes on several things that crossed my mind as I read. The first was the development of Junior; the second, the stereotypes that were presented in this novel about indians and indians who live on a reservation; and third, I wondered whether or not this was a book that I could (or would) teach to my own students.
This novel was a bildungsroman in the sense where Junior leaves his home to go out and explore a new world (Reardan High School) and then comes back home a changed young man. At the end of the novel, it was clear to me that Junior was not going to be stuck on the reservation the way his family had been, nor was he going to flee the reservations in hopes of a similar life on another reservation the way his sister had. Junior was going to leave the reservation and be able to start fresh - wherever he desired. On p. 5 of the story Junior is talking about how important it is for him to draw cartoon and he writes "I draw because words are too unpredictable. I draw because words are to limited." These words really stuck out to me because Junior seemed to have a grasp on a higher level of thinking/feeling/understanding. He knew that the mere words that he associated with his everyday life and pain was not the only way of communicating with the world-he was reaching out to new people and new ideas outside of his reservation. This idea made me think of Raymond Carver's short story "The Cathedral" where a blind man comes to visit the narrator and through his short stay, the narrator has an epiphany that he is the one who is actually blind and the blind visitor helps him to open his eyes and see things in a new way. The story ends with the narrator drawing with his eyes shut, hands clasped over the blind man's so he (the narrator) can experience seeing and communicating without sight. For Junior, a young man, to come to this realization so early on in his life, made me realize how intelligent he was in the ways of the world.
In Junior's own "true diary" he kept pointing out the stereotypes behind the poor Indians on the reservation. His mother is a recovering alcoholic, his dad is a raging alcoholic, his sister is a crazy indian and they are all poor. He is very honest (in his writing, if not with his friends) how poor his family is and how he readily accepts this poverty. On p, 8 he wrote, "And sure, sometimes, my family misses a meal, and sleep is the only thing we have for dinner." This is such an honest remark. Junior (or Alexie writing as Junior) isn't whining and complaining about being hungry. He is just accepting the fact that sometimes there isn't enough food - just like sometimes he has to walk the 22 miles to school because there is no money for gas or his father is so drunk that he doesn't remember to pick him up. Alexie's voice through the character of Junior is so unassuming and non-judgmental. Junior continues to love his father throughout the entire novel and never judges him for being an alcoholic. He also never judges Rowdy. He accepts the fate that has been handed to him and to the others in the reservation and just lives with it.
While reading this novel, I kept thinking about whether or not I would teach this in the classroom. Right now I am teaching at a college level and definitely think that my students would be able to read this and pull out the important ideas and be able to have intelligent discussions based on the themes of the novel. However, I don' t know if I would be able to teach this novel to a group of younger students. The other day I was tutoring a sixth grade girl and her mother asked me for some reading recommendations. We looked up age-appropriate novels on the Internet and this book was listed, However, I hesitated to recommend the book because of the language and some of the adult themes in the novel. While I definitely think that the ideas of death, eating disorders, acceptance and more could be discussed through this novel, I don't know how young adults would take to reading (and being responsible for discussing) the scenes on masturbation, boners or even the scene where Roger gets punched in the face by Junior. The language is honest and I think that adolescents would be able to relate to it, but I don't know if it necessarily a book I could teach. Then, I started thinking about whether or not the book could be approached like House on Mango Street - where you can teach certain vignettes - but I don't know if that approach would work either since the entries (or chapters) are so closely related and really build upon one another, whereas in Mango Street the chapters each their own vignette tied together loosely by a common thread.
Overall, I really enjoyed reading this novel. I was proud to be an educator when I read about Mr. P convincing Junior to strive for a better education and when Coach stayed with him all night in the hospital. It made me sad for the awkward teenager when Junior was beaten up by the 30 year old triplets or jumped on Halloween. I smiled when Penelope and Roger turn into good friends to Junior after the dance. Perhaps it is a novel I would recommend to adolescents as an independent reading - where they could identify with the awkwardness of Junior, his fascination with masturbation and life on a reservation. It is a novel that brings up hard to discuss topics and can open the lines of communication in a situation that might otherwise go undiscussed.

First Blog in Library

Today we are meeting for our first class of Curriculum in a Multi-Cultural Society. I originally became interested in blogging because of the movie Julie and Julia (or is it Julia and Julie? I can never remember!) I am excited that we are going to have an opportunity to use the blogs in this class!