A Virgin Bride

The story of "The Bridegroom by Ha Jin was quite and interesting one that definitely kept my concentration and curiosity high. So many things in this story bothered me. It was all the injustice presented to Baowen just for simply being homosexual. Granted, I'm not a Gay Rights advocate, having a moderately conservative stance in politics, but I do believe that homosexuals should not be treated like Baowen was in this story. I was shocked (no pun intended) when I was reading about the treatment that he was given. The very fact that he was sent to a mental hospital and then to jail really points out our tendency towards ignorance as human beings...although maybe I now sounds like a hypocrite by saying that because I'm not completley pro-gay if you will. But, I simply believe this is a sin that people deal with. I don't necessarily believe in a "gay gene." I think there can be a tendency to become gay as a younger child, as Baowen probably did, because of cultural influences. Such as, "well that little boy really likes pink, so he must be gay." Then his entire life, if he maintains an effeminate personality people make rude remarks, especially during the excruciating years of middle and high school, calling the young man gay and he may question his own sexuality. But anyway, that was a tangent where I laid out my beliefs i suppose...probably superfulous.

As I was reading this story, my heart really broke for Beina. The poor girl isn't that pretty, and her uncle is even swift to say so, in fact he was surprised when she got a wedding proposal and was going to do whatever it took for her to stay married. But the poor girl was a little bit naive and didn't realize she was marrying someone who was homosexual. But her reaction to the truth was absolutely amazing. If something like this had happened to me, I would be down right devastated! But she handled the situation with complete grace and even said, "Don't feel so bad, Uncle. He's better than a normal man" (page 101). She doesn't care about the sex, the romance, or the intimacy, all she wants is a man to keep her company at home. I can't decide whether this situation is extremely sad or a good thing. Because this definitely shows that she's complacent with what she has, which those of us who search for romantic love are usually searching for something more, but Beina is completely happy. It's interesting to me.

It was just really hard to read something where the doctor knew that there wasn't a "cure" to homosexuality but they were still sending Baowen to electric baths. It just reminds me of all the unfairness to others we've fallen to as human beings throughout history such as the slave trade, the holocaust, Japanese camps in the United States, and just simple prejudice. It's something we have to push past because this is what can happen when it gets out of control. A situation such as this one where a perfectly content and happy woman was broken apart from her husband because of an act that was considered a crime because of prejudices.

A Wife's Story

Right off the bat I thought this story, "A Wife's Story" by Bharah Muklurjer was going to be interesting because it immediately tied in another piece of literature we have read this semester, Glengarry Glen Ross by Mamet. This woman is offended by this play, however...which I can see how it would be difficult to watch in a theatre, but she did slightly overreact.

Even after finishing this story, I can't seem to get over the uniquness of her situation. She is living in New York City getting her Ph.D. in special education (a 2 year program) where she has left her husband in India to live without her. I don't know it just seemed quite interesting to me that she would be willing to leave her husband to live in a foreign country for so long...granted her marriage was arranged, but still he was her husband. The narrator of the story does mention how, "I've broadened my horizons" (page 31) and how she really does enjoy living there. Even while I was reading I was excited that she was willing to step out and fulfill her dreams. I think that so many times we get scared of what might happen if we reach for the stars (cliche i know). That we may be uncomfortable for a little while (this is probably true), that we might fail (it could happen), or we simply don't have the courage and strength to get through. But I believe this narrator shows us that if you're willing to step out of your comfort zone, good things do come. The ending is rather open ended though, so I don't even know if I can validly say that good things are going to happen to her because she's pursuing her dreams, but I d o think that she is doing the right thing by trying.

Another few quotes the narrator said that struck me were first on page 27 she says, "It's not my fault; its the situation." The reason I was truck by this is because how many times have I claimed this in life? It's not my fault, it's what's going on around me. And to some extent this is true, we definitely cannot control our circumstances but I do know that we can control the way we act in them. Also on page 36 she says, "I've been trained to adapt; what else can I say?" Goodness, how true is this! We're trained, as humans, to adapt to the situation we're in..and to be truthful those who adapt the most fit in the most. There's an entire branch of education devoted to this adaptation, it's called Sociology. There's an unspoken (and sometimes spoken when it comes to laws and such) social order that people have to follow to fit into society. It's almost a sad thought that as a society, we change people/outsiders to adapt to how we want them rather than letting them act as they would naturally. What a shame.

The Stones of Summer

So today was a nice change of pace to watching a movie about literature from discussing different pieces we've read throughout the semester. This film, Stone Reader, definitely got me interested in the book The Stones of Summer. I guess the curiosity of this man really intrigued me. That he would go to so much trouble to set up a basically a documentary on finding the whereabouts of the author of this apparently fabulous book he read 30 some years prior. I was first amazed at his memory that he read the book so long ago. A lot of times I will read a book (I'm always reading something) and then a few years down the road completely forget what the story was even about...so kudos to him. But, his memory then lacked where, in my opinion, it should count. He can't remember what he was like thirty years prior, he has to go to his mother to figure this out...which she had a grand memory of how he used to be (my mom wouldn't). One final aspect that made me think a lot was how much money this man must have spent on books throughout the year. Through the entire piece of the film we were watching in class today, he kept getting more and more shipments of USPS books coming in. And his library, oh his library. It was PACKED!! I guess the only reason I say this is because I come from a family who loves to read, but hardly ever buys books unless it's for a gift. We're big fans of the library (free!)

While watching this movie, I was astounded by the man's intellect which was a direct result of his literary adventures. He is constantly reading. In fact he even said, "Reading is the only thing that keeps me sane." And while he's traveling and the stories he's reading become the "place within a place." This was very intriguing to me because I can definitely relate, not on quite the scale as him. I love to travel and whenever I go anywhere (either with my family or friends) I like to bring at least 4 or 5 books to read during the week. Then later when I think back on the trip, I remember it by the stories I dove into during my journies either being a beach bum or a tourist across Europe I can remember the specific novels I was reading and the mental pictures I had while enjoying them.

In the film today they brought up Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man which almost made me cringe because when I was a senior in high school and in AP Literature, I read this book and basically beat it to death. I could probably tell you every symbol, significant quote, theme, important character and their relationship you would want to know about this book. You can probably tell that I really didn't enjoy the story, but I do realize it is a great piece of literature. And that is a lesson I learned from the film today that just, "because it was a great book, doesn't mean you have to like it." But you can appreciate the literary novelties that come along with the writing. Anyway, there's just some of my thoughts from the movie today.

Heart Warming

I was pleasantly surprised with the ending of Offut's The Same River Twice. Okay, well I don't know if surprised is what I was...I was always hopeful that the ending would be good. That their baby would turn out healthy and Chris would no longer be scared of being a father but he would be excited about the joys that are to come.

In my last readings for this book I did feel like I came across some symbolic aspects to the story. I thought the hurricane seemed to wake Chris up from this life that he's been leading. On page 154 he says, "I realized that I had no idea what I was up to, in fact never had. Twelve years after leaving Kentucky, I was still roving the twentieth century, ineluctably alone and no better at it, merely accustomed to the circumstance." He goes to the Everglades and realizes after that horrible experience that he cannot live life the way he does. He helps to get ready for this hurricane that is supposed to be a cleansing process for Florida, but it also ends up cleansing Chris in a way. It makes him realize that he doesn't want to roam anymore. Right after he leaves he goes to be with his best friend Shadrack and then shortly after that (or that's how he makes it seem in the memoir) he meets his soon to be wife, Rita. But while he's still there battling the storm he says, "Most of my life had been a sequence of halfhearted attempts at self-destruction. Somehow I'd always scampered away--you can't get me, I'm the gingerbread man. Now I faced a worthy death, a death of honor in the face of a stormy god" (page 169). And in my opinion he did face death, death of his previous life.

The reason I believe he was reborn is when his son comes along he says, "His birth was my rebirth. Paternal terror was simply ignorance. The baby knew everything there was to know" (page 185). This child in a way completed him and his journey. He found what he needed. Although his travels grew and matured him into the person he needed to become, his family completed him and gave him purpose. He was scared that he wouldn't be a good father, but as soon as he held his son those fears dissipated. I hope that's what happens for me someday, obviously not as a father. It scares me to death to be completely in charge of the life of another human being. But as soon as I hold my child someday, I want to feel the same way Chris does in this beautiful picture of parenthood.

I'll end with two really good quotes from the last page of the memoir (page 188):

"Nothing has changed except everying."
"He can't learn from my mistakes, only from his own."

Contrasting Views

As I've been reading this story of Chris' crazy, adventurous life in The Same River Twice, along the way I keep picking up on Chris' fear as an adult in the section of the memoir when he is about to be a father, and then his complete lack of fear/almost innocence when he's young. Maybe you could almost classify this story as a coming of age story, a bildungsroman if you will. But I guess maybe all memoirs are like that? They have to have some sort of story to tell and something to teach the readers as they go along.

Some of the fear I caught onto was after Rita had the amniotic fluid taken from the uterus to make sure everything was okay with the baby. Chris says on page 57, "The baby was missing an ounce of life already, a shot glass of amniotic fluid, like drought. I sat on the bed and apologized to Rita's belly for our invasion." This really struck me because I had never thought of this simple test like this before. That we, as doctors, parents, scientists (basically just human beings who are already on earth) could be stripping someone of life before they're even born. There's always something that the world wants from us, and it can start even before we're born. Another interesting quote pulling in Chris' knowledge of literature and Freudian psychology was on page 58 when he says, "Oedipus didn't fulfill his own destiny, he lived up to his father's terror." Again just displaying his fear to be a father.

Now on the counter side of that, while Chris is traveling with the circus, he seems to have no fear at all, but he is with people that do, like The Parrot Woman. She talks about how she willingly became a freak when all the other "freaks" that work for the circus were dealt the cards of fate for their freakness. She says, "I hate them because they're what I was in secret, before the tattoos. I was a freak too. You just couldn't tell. I was tired of hurting on the inside, like them. I hate my tattoos and I hate the men who pay to see them. Nobody knows about my inside. . ." (page 107). This really spoke to me because I think a lot (I would even venture to say most) of the people in our society feel like they need to bottle up whatever they're struggling with and keep the pain inside. But this girl, she decides to make her pain apparent for all to see through her tattoos, and when this happens she's not accepted. It makes me wonder, if everyone were completely true, honest, and open with their feelings how different the world may be?