Pearl Cleage’s play Flying West is a story that deals with people of color trying to live their lives with no segregation in1898. The setting of the play took place in Nicodemus, Kansas, a small town. Miss Leah, seventy three year old elderly woman, is a character in the play that grew up in slavery. The character appears to be a stubborn, who does not like to be told what to do and will not back down. For example, when Miss Leah is offered to spend the winter season at her neighbor’s house, she refused the offer. Later, she was convinced to accept. She is well known for owning neighboring property. Later in the play she reveals more about her life. Miss Leah continues to talk about her ten children that never completely her children due to the slave trade. This reveals another side of her personality. Throughout the play Miss Leah reveals more about herself, making her complex, dynamic character. Miss Leah is a three dimensional character shaped by her values and world experiences.
As I analyzed Miss Leah’s character, I concluded that she changes over that course of the play. At the same time, there was something that made who she is as a person, her values. Growing up in slavery made Miss Leah an independent, strong, well rounded woman. Therefore she values women who are like her, for example Sophie Washington and Fannie Dovie. She admires the fact that these two women own property, despite the fact that it is 1898 and it is difficult for women of color to accomplish. Miss Leah admires well rounded women, which meant that they are work full time and still be able to have a warm cooked meals. I speculated that Miss Leah was giving Sophie advice about her coffee as she tasted it, as it says in page 12, “Then they have to drink your coffee.” Since Sophie is always working she does not have the time to cook and clean but Miss Leah makes advises her to work on her cooking skills. All this goes to show that Miss Leah’s values are strong and sticks by them to the fullest.
Miss Leah is an elderly woman who has experienced a lot of hardships in her life, leading her to have high values. When she witnesses Minnie, sister of Sophie and Fannie, being struck by her husband, she becomes altered. Miss Leah can not do much but to give advice to Minnie by telling her, “If he hit you once, he will do it again.” This goes to show that Miss Leah values respect for women and how they should be treated. It also shows that she does not tolerate abuse from men and upholds no remorse to men who take advantage of women. She decides to take matter into her own hands by making an old recipe of poisoning apple pie to try and kill Frank, Minnie’s husband. This shows that she stand string by her values.
Over all Miss Leah has shown many sides to her. I feel that I have gotten to know the character more through play considering the fact that she is not the main character and doesn’t really come out a lot. She manages to be a strong knowledgeable person who anyone can rely on. Most importantly her values remain strong. By analyzing her character and values, it made me wonder what my values are and how strongly do I believe in them.
Wednesday, February 25, 2009
Wednesday, February 11, 2009
Coffee Will Make You Black Chapters 8 9 10
Willie Jean is a character in the book Coffee Will Make You Black, by April Sinclair, she plays an important role in the book because she of growing up issues she faces. In chapters 8, 9, 10 of the books Willie Jean is described as tomboyish girl who is neglected by boys her age. Girls her age also notice that she is not like any other girls by the way she acts. Willie Jean is comfortable enough with the way she is, which is a lesbian. I admire the fact that she came out and said she like girls indirectly because in the times she was living in homosexuality was not accepted.
Willie Jean was faced with stigma, negative attitudes, from people she knew. For example her boy classmates talk behind her back saying that she is a “Tomboy form the ghetto”, said Yuseff. Stevie mentioned to Youseff that she liked playing basketball and right away Yuseff had a negative attitude because women are not supposed to act or try to be like boys. This is a stigma that Stevie has to see and doesn’t understand why Willie Jean has o be talked about in that way.
Willie Jean has to face issues of acceptance from girls, especially from Carla. Carla described Willie Jean as flat-chest, tomboyish girl. This stigma affects Stevie because she is not used to seeing homosexuality. There was a situation where Willie Jean had to explain that it was ok for a girl to dance with a girl. With Stevie’s innocence she saw that comment as a normal talk but Willie Jean was indirectly saying that she is a lesbian.
Willie Jean was faced with stigma, negative attitudes, from people she knew. For example her boy classmates talk behind her back saying that she is a “Tomboy form the ghetto”, said Yuseff. Stevie mentioned to Youseff that she liked playing basketball and right away Yuseff had a negative attitude because women are not supposed to act or try to be like boys. This is a stigma that Stevie has to see and doesn’t understand why Willie Jean has o be talked about in that way.
Willie Jean has to face issues of acceptance from girls, especially from Carla. Carla described Willie Jean as flat-chest, tomboyish girl. This stigma affects Stevie because she is not used to seeing homosexuality. There was a situation where Willie Jean had to explain that it was ok for a girl to dance with a girl. With Stevie’s innocence she saw that comment as a normal talk but Willie Jean was indirectly saying that she is a lesbian.
Wednesday, February 4, 2009
Coffee Will Make You Black Oral Presentation
In the book Coffee Will Make You Black, by April Sinclair, the main character of the book is a young girl named Jean Stevenson also known as “Stevie” who faces many growing up issues. She is African American girl who has two younger brothers and lives with her parents. As she goes to grade schools she is faced with peer pressure from friends to act a certain way. Stevie is a confused teenager who wants to find who she really is. The main issue that I will be focusing on is on Stevie’s experience with sexual awakening and the discovery of same sex attraction.
Growing up with a mother who is conservative and doesn’t show much emotion, Stevie is left to with many unanswered questions. She is curios when she is asked to about getting her period, as well as friends talking about their love coming down ,yet the mother refuses to answer any questions and tell her that she needs to stay away from it all. This causes Stevie to search the answers on her on and sometimes getting herself in trouble for it. As she gets older she is more experienced and learns the answers that her mother tried keeping her away.
One thing that Stevie’s mother forgot to mention to her was to stay away from liking girls. Stevie did hear from her so called friend Carla and Yusef to stay away from the tomboy Willie Jean and not to act like boys. Back then the thought of being a homosexual was considered a taboo and whoever was known to be one was an outcast. Stevie was misled to think that homosexuality was wrong and if you did like the opposite sex you would be considered a sinner.
Later on in the chapters, Stevie started to unfold her real self little by little. At the age of sixteen, she has a boyfriend named Sean. They have been in a relationship for six months and finally they both decide to have sex. Stevie is once led to believe that having sex is a norm and if he loved Sean she had to have sexual relationships. At the time when they are both having intercourse Stevie tells Sean to stop because she was in pain. Sean is inpatient and tells her that he can’t wait until the next time they do it again and she responds that there will be no next time. They end up breaking up and Stevie realizes that she was not in love with Sean she was just impressed. As I read this chapter I suspected that Stevie did not like the opposite sex and was attracted to the same sex.
Stevie would seek for advice to the School nurse. The School nurse was a white woman named Ms. Horn. Stevie was the schools nurse helper and they would spend a lot of time together. She was always having thought and dreams of her rescuing her from drowning and giving her mouth to mouth. This was not normal for her to feel this way. Stevie did not know how to explain to Carla how she did not like Sean and wanted to talk to her about Ms. Horn but Carla demanded her not to tell her anything about her homosexual feeling. Stevie felt like an outcast. As Stevie confessed her feelings to Ms. Horn, Ms. Horn clarified that it is normal to have homosexual and heterosexual feeling because she is still growing up.
As I reflected on how Stevie was feeling through her teenage year I can say I relate to her. As I was growing I never got answers from my parents. Their advice was to stay away from bad influences but the more they told me to stay away the more I would seek my friends. As I saw how Stevie felt about her homosexual feeling, I got a different perspective on how that happens to many teens. I haven’t experienced it myself but I have a better understanding of how it feels. Overall I like this book because it was something new and different.
Growing up with a mother who is conservative and doesn’t show much emotion, Stevie is left to with many unanswered questions. She is curios when she is asked to about getting her period, as well as friends talking about their love coming down ,yet the mother refuses to answer any questions and tell her that she needs to stay away from it all. This causes Stevie to search the answers on her on and sometimes getting herself in trouble for it. As she gets older she is more experienced and learns the answers that her mother tried keeping her away.
One thing that Stevie’s mother forgot to mention to her was to stay away from liking girls. Stevie did hear from her so called friend Carla and Yusef to stay away from the tomboy Willie Jean and not to act like boys. Back then the thought of being a homosexual was considered a taboo and whoever was known to be one was an outcast. Stevie was misled to think that homosexuality was wrong and if you did like the opposite sex you would be considered a sinner.
Later on in the chapters, Stevie started to unfold her real self little by little. At the age of sixteen, she has a boyfriend named Sean. They have been in a relationship for six months and finally they both decide to have sex. Stevie is once led to believe that having sex is a norm and if he loved Sean she had to have sexual relationships. At the time when they are both having intercourse Stevie tells Sean to stop because she was in pain. Sean is inpatient and tells her that he can’t wait until the next time they do it again and she responds that there will be no next time. They end up breaking up and Stevie realizes that she was not in love with Sean she was just impressed. As I read this chapter I suspected that Stevie did not like the opposite sex and was attracted to the same sex.
Stevie would seek for advice to the School nurse. The School nurse was a white woman named Ms. Horn. Stevie was the schools nurse helper and they would spend a lot of time together. She was always having thought and dreams of her rescuing her from drowning and giving her mouth to mouth. This was not normal for her to feel this way. Stevie did not know how to explain to Carla how she did not like Sean and wanted to talk to her about Ms. Horn but Carla demanded her not to tell her anything about her homosexual feeling. Stevie felt like an outcast. As Stevie confessed her feelings to Ms. Horn, Ms. Horn clarified that it is normal to have homosexual and heterosexual feeling because she is still growing up.
As I reflected on how Stevie was feeling through her teenage year I can say I relate to her. As I was growing I never got answers from my parents. Their advice was to stay away from bad influences but the more they told me to stay away the more I would seek my friends. As I saw how Stevie felt about her homosexual feeling, I got a different perspective on how that happens to many teens. I haven’t experienced it myself but I have a better understanding of how it feels. Overall I like this book because it was something new and different.
Monday, February 2, 2009
No Escape Oral Presentation
In the book, "Mee Street Chronicles: Straight up Stories of a Black Woman’s Life" by Frankie Lennon, she uses many ways of describing characters in her chapters. When reading part one of her book, "No Escape", she mainly focuses on the narrator. Characters may be analyzed in action, behavior, dialogue, thoughts, look, or dress.
In "No Escape", the narrator, which is Frankie, is faced with her fear of the dark; she is facing a challenge by herself. She wakes up one night and calls out to her parents but there was no response so she goes to look for them in her dark house. She was scared, as she described in pg 17 “The rolling thunder sends...another inch.” At this point she thinks she sees ghosts and thinks that they are going to eat her. By the way Frankie was thinking you can tell that the narrator is very imaginative to think up of ghost. For example in pg 22 “Dracula’s Wings?” this quote describes one of imaginary monsters. Also by her behavior, you can tell that Frankie is not brave because she is not willing to keep going with finding her parents. Frankie then calls out to her parents and there is still no response leading her to think that the monsters have eaten her parents. She becomes sad and starts crying. By her behavior, we can analyze that Frankie needs a lot of growing up.
Through out "No Escape", Frankie keeps getting more thoughts in her head but this time she calls it her god fairy, it is what advises her to keep going. The narrator chooses to keep going in her quest to look for her parents. She then gets the courage to walk through the dark kitchen. Frankie does this because she is being compared to Gretel, one who is brave and courageous, as it is described in page 17 “Be like Gretel!”As I have read the chapter I analyzed the narrator, I came to a conclusion that she is a round character who is 3-deminsional with depth and complexity because she changes through out the end of the chapter. She is also a dynamic character because she grows up a lot considering the fact that she was only three years old when this occurred.
In "No Escape", the narrator, which is Frankie, is faced with her fear of the dark; she is facing a challenge by herself. She wakes up one night and calls out to her parents but there was no response so she goes to look for them in her dark house. She was scared, as she described in pg 17 “The rolling thunder sends...another inch.” At this point she thinks she sees ghosts and thinks that they are going to eat her. By the way Frankie was thinking you can tell that the narrator is very imaginative to think up of ghost. For example in pg 22 “Dracula’s Wings?” this quote describes one of imaginary monsters. Also by her behavior, you can tell that Frankie is not brave because she is not willing to keep going with finding her parents. Frankie then calls out to her parents and there is still no response leading her to think that the monsters have eaten her parents. She becomes sad and starts crying. By her behavior, we can analyze that Frankie needs a lot of growing up.
Through out "No Escape", Frankie keeps getting more thoughts in her head but this time she calls it her god fairy, it is what advises her to keep going. The narrator chooses to keep going in her quest to look for her parents. She then gets the courage to walk through the dark kitchen. Frankie does this because she is being compared to Gretel, one who is brave and courageous, as it is described in page 17 “Be like Gretel!”As I have read the chapter I analyzed the narrator, I came to a conclusion that she is a round character who is 3-deminsional with depth and complexity because she changes through out the end of the chapter. She is also a dynamic character because she grows up a lot considering the fact that she was only three years old when this occurred.
The Value of Stoies
As I was reading Frankie Lennon’s blog "The Book of Days III: Part II-and II Women Who Run with the Wolves", I thought about the value of stories. Stories are valuable to people when they relate to the stories as well as learning something new. A story is defined by dictionary.com as: a narrative, either true or fictitious, in prose or verse, designed to interest, amuse, or instruct the hearer or reader; tale. Stories can be told by anyone at anytime; it is just a matter of hoe the story gets passed down to generations.
When reading how Frankie Lennon felt about stories, I completely agreed with what she was saying. As a little girl she enjoyed stories that her parents would tell her and I feel that I can identify with that. Stories have a valuable meaning when you hear the same story being told by someone else because it shows how popular it is as well as to why they tell the stories. Lennon also expresses how stories have helped her find who she really was by writing the story of her life in a book.
I think it is important for people especially for women to read or write stories or narratives to help them find themselves. At the end of the day stories will always be told and they will tell informational ideas that will create wisdom, give hope and encourage us to keep going. After reading this blog I am considering of writing my own stories and making sure I tell the ones I know.
When reading how Frankie Lennon felt about stories, I completely agreed with what she was saying. As a little girl she enjoyed stories that her parents would tell her and I feel that I can identify with that. Stories have a valuable meaning when you hear the same story being told by someone else because it shows how popular it is as well as to why they tell the stories. Lennon also expresses how stories have helped her find who she really was by writing the story of her life in a book.
I think it is important for people especially for women to read or write stories or narratives to help them find themselves. At the end of the day stories will always be told and they will tell informational ideas that will create wisdom, give hope and encourage us to keep going. After reading this blog I am considering of writing my own stories and making sure I tell the ones I know.
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)