No Name Woman

"No Name Woman" is the first chapter in Maxine Hong Kingston's novel The Woman Warrior. The story that Maxine's mother tells her about her no name aunt illustrates the importance of the daughter withholding the family honor in Chinese culture. This story reminded me a lot of the disney movie Mulan. In China women are obligated to follow the orders of men and expected to be silenced when told to do so. Maxine is told about her father's sister whom committed suicide because she had an affair and became pregnant. That act would also be considered disgraceful in my culture. However, what bothered me the most of the story is how the aunt only got blamed and the man who got her pregnant was never heard from. She might've even got raped, but she was the one to get her clothes ripped off and her house destroyed. Even nowadays men blame women for a baby that took two to make, not only in Chinese culture. To me that is very sad.

TED Talk

A while back in class we watched a TED talk called "The Danger of a Single Story featuring Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie where . I really enjoyed Adichie's story. Her tone was very mellow and she was also very humurous. I watched her speech a few times over and went on to watch other TED talks. I watched the model Cameron Russell talk about how looks aren't everything and Amy Cuddy tell us how our body language shapes who we are. Russell who is a model herself opens up about having her own insecurities even though she won the genetic lottery. Amy Cuddy informs us that these body language motions are even evident in the animal world. These TED talks are very informative and motivating. After watching Adichie speak about listening to a single story is harmful I decided to watch other TED talks about other topics because of how much this one reeled me in. TED talks are a great way to open a persons mind.

How To Tame A Wild Tongue

Culture and language are one of the biggest factors, if not the biggest, that make up a person. It shapes us to be who we are and think the way we do. Overall, I enjoyed reading Anzaldua's, How To Tame A Wild Tongue. Anzaldua is critcized for speaking Chicano, but she is the person she is because of her language. It is her identity. Language is how we express ourselves, not everything can be translated because the meaning of words that are so powerful in one language can be empty in another language. Words are lost in translation. For example, I feel like English is best when I want to get technical, but when I want to describe my feelings I prefer to speak in Arabic. Anzaldua also points out that our identities change depending on who were talking to which is very true. Our identity can be what our ethnicity is, what language we speak, or what city we live in. Growing up Anzaldua was ashamed of who she is, but she learns to be proud and loyal to her language.

It's Not an Oxymoron

It's Not an Oxymoron by Susan Muaddi Darraj has to be my favorite reading so far. As an Arab myself I completely agreed with Darraj's stand. The Western world and other cultures do not understand what an Arab woman's life is like. They do not understand the purpose behind the veil, our relgions (yes not every Arab is Muslim), or any aspect of our culture as a matter of fact. The Western media tends to take one bad example and generalize it on all the people. The veil is not a way for Arab women to be oppressed. The veil is meant to cover the women so she can  be modest and not be stared down by every man that passes by. Us Arabs have rights and the freedom to do whatever we want. My mother lived in Egypt until the 90s and she did everything on her own will. She led the life she wanted. An Arab woman being a feminist is not an oxymoron at all, but the people tend to judge what they cannot understand.  

Coraline?

I found the story Coraline to be a very strange story and a few days later I realized the animated movie Coraline was the same story. I never watched the movie, but I believe I should do so to get a better understanding of this short story. Coraline is an adventurous girl and she calls herself an explorer, but what is the concept of the hidden room that Coraline stumbles upon? And why does she have a second set of parents? Everything is parallel to her real life, but things seem very off and have hidden secrets. I don't think the story was clear through the comic, but after all it was based on a much more detailed novel. Since the novel was made into a movie and the movie got high ratings the story must be far more interesting than what I'm getting from it.  

Thumbs up to Oscar Wao

The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao surprisingly turned out to be a great story. I found myself reading this book during my leisure time this summer. I think what made it so enjoyable was the author's, Junot Diaz's writing style. The way the narrator spoke to the audience was very intimate and most of the time was in slang. Even in the footnotes where the narrator wanted to give us a little background information about the Dominican Republic his tone was very sarcastic. The narrator's tone and way of speaking to the audience added humor to the story. Even when Diaz added Dominican Spanish terms I was able to figure out what it meant. I plan on reading Diaz's other novel, Drown next because I was very impressed by this one.