ENG 222 Exam #3

multiculturalism

the presence of, or support for the presence of, several distinct cultural or ethnic groups within a society.

La curandera

woman healer who uses folk medicines

Jhumpa Lahiri

- (1967-present) - Born in London (Bengali parents) - Raised in Rhode Island, US - Bernard; Boston University (M.A., Ph.D. in Renaissance Studies) - "Interpreter of Maladies" (1999), short story collection; 2000 Pulitzer Prize for fiction - "The Namesake" (2003)

"The Moths" by Helena Viramontes

- 1982 - setting: city, LA? Spanish culture - characters: narrator; abuelita, Mama Luna; sisters, Teresa and Mariesela; Ama; Apa - narrative perpective and structure: - plot: narrator in an abusive relationship with her father; forced her to go to church; grandma dying if cancer. - themes: loneliness; the narrator longs for feminine support, specifically the comfort and safety that one feels with their mother. - metaphors/ figurative language: moths eating the soul yet flying away; resurrection;

"A Temporary Matter" by Lahiri

- 1998 - image of food important throughout the story - meaning of the titile - told from a narrative perspective

Nellie Wong

- born 1934 -wrote "When I Was Growing Up"

Cherie Moraga

- born 1952 - wrote "The Bridge Called My Back: Writings by Radical Women of Color"

"Le Guera" by Moraga

- genre: analytical/personal essay - 1979 -not too critical of white privilege; was taught "light is right" by her mother as a child - family was Chicana, but Morgana looks fair-skinned with her anglo father - demonstrates that the family can be a safe harbor for women, but can also be similar to other social institutions (mother was a source of love and empowerment, but also enforces colorism) - raises consciousness of inequality and oppression as a result of her sexuality (lesbian) and her encounter with homophobia -her lesbianism allows her to understand the problem behind white privilege - states "the danger lies in failing to acknowledge the specificity of the oppression" -asks to view oppression as a intersectional phenomenon: we need a feminist movement that advocates for all oppressed women -sheds a light on how one internalizes oppression and how one may also be the oppressor - conveys that privilege yields wealth and power, but it comes at the cost of perpetuating those oppressive systems KEY VOCAB AND CONCEPTS: -colorism -Internalize -passing -alienation -(unearned) privilege -Intersectionality -consciousness raising ("click")

"When I Was Growing Up" by Wong

-genre: poem -demonstrates how colorism can be seen from a young age, and how it's reinforced through gender norms (standard of beauty) as well as national identity -changes outlook; now that she is grown up she is proud of her ethnicity

"My Dream About Being White" by Clifton

-genre: poem (1987) -status of privilege has no future for the narrator; there is no point in POC investing in it -"wake up dancing" self-determination

Louise Erdrich

- (1954-)

"The Shawl" by Edrich

- 2001

Lucille Clifton

- lived 1936-2010 wrote "My Dream About Being White"

"The Management of Grief" by Bharati Mukherje

-1988 - setting: the bombing of Air India flight 182 (1985) was linked to a Sikh extremist group outraged by the Indian army's June 1984 Reid on a Sikh shrine in Amritsar. (The raid, called Operation Blue Star, is also believed to have precipitated the assassination of Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi in October 1984) (Time Jan 27, 2016) - characters: Shaila Bhave; Kusum; Dr.Ranganathan; Judith Templeton - narrative perspective and structure: Shaila narrates in third person - plot: opens with the chaos at Shaila Bhave's Toronto home. Her house is filled with strangers, gathered together for legal advice, company, and tea. Dr. Sharma, his wife, their children, Kusum and "a lot of women [Shaila] do[esn't] know" are trying to make sense of the crash of Air India Flight 182, simultaneously listening to multiple radios and televisions to catch some news about the event. The Sharma boys murmur rumors that Sikh terrorists had planted a bomb. Shaila narrates the scene from a haze, speaking with detached, shell-shocked calm. The Valium she has been taking contributes to her stable appearance, but inside she feels "tensed" and "ready to scream." Imagined cries from her husband and sons "insulate her" from the anxious activity in her house. Shaila and Kusum, her neighbor and friend, are sitting on the stairs in Shaila's house. Shaila reminisces about Kusum and Satish's recent house-warming party that brought cultures and generations together in their sparkling, spacious suburban home: "even white neighbors piled their plates high with [tandoori]" and Shaila's own Americanized sons had "broken away" from a Stanley Cup telecast to come to the party. Shaila somberly wonders "and now . . . how many of those happy faces are gone." Implicitly Shaila feels "punished" for the good success of Indian immigrant families like hers and Kusum's. Kusum brings her out of her reverie with the question: "Why does God give us so much if all along He intends to take it away?" Shaila regrets her perfect obedience to upper-class, Indian female decorum. She has, for instance, never called her husband by his first name or told him that she loved him. Kusum comforts her saying: "He knew. My husband knew. They felt it. Modern young girls have to say it because what they feel is fake." Kusum's first daughter Pam walks into the room and orders her mother to change out of her bathrobe since reporters are expected. Pam, a manifest example of the "modern young girls" that Kusum disdains, had refused to go to India with her father and younger sister, preferring to spend that summer working at McDonald's. Mother and daughter exchange harsh words, and Pam accuses Kusum of wishing that Pam had been on the plane, since the younger daughter was a better "Indian." Kusum does not react verbally. Judith Templeton, a Canadian social worker, visits Shaila, hoping Shaila can facilitate her work with the relatives of the deceased. Judith is described as young, comely and professional to a fault. She enlists Shaila to give the "right human touch" to the impersonal work of processing papers for relief funds. Judith tells Shaila that she was chosen because of her exemplary calm and describes her as a "pillar" of the devastated Indian Canadian community. Shaila explains that her seemingly cool, unaffected demeanor is hardly admired by her community, who expect their members to mourn publicly and vocally. She is puzzled herself by the "calm [that] will not go away" and considers herself a "freak." The story moves to Dunmanus Bay, Ireland, the site of the crash. Kusum and Shaila are wading in the warm waters and recalling the lives of their loved ones, imagining they will be found alive. Kusum has not eaten for four days and Shaila wishes she had also died here along with her husband and sons. They are joined by Dr. Ranganathan from Montreal, another who has lost his family, and he cheers them with thoughts of unknown islets within swimming distance. Dr. Ranganathan utters a central line of the story: "It's a parent's duty to hope." He scatters pink rose petals on the water, explaining that his wife used to demand pink roses every Friday. He offers Shaila some roses, but Shaila has her own gifts to float— Mithun's half finished model B-52, Vinod's pocket calculator, and a poem for Vikram, which belatedly articulates her love for him. Shaila is struck by the compassionate behavior of the Irish and compares them to the residents of Toronto, unable to image Torontonians behaving this open-heartedly. Kusum has identified her husband. Looking through picture after picture, Shaila does not find a match for anyone she knows. A nun "assigned to console" Shaila reminds her that faces will have altered, bloated by the water and with facial bones broken from the impact. She is instructed to "try to adjust [her] memories." Shaila leaves Ireland without any bodies, but Kusum takes her husband's coffin through customs. A customs bureaucrat detains them under suspicion of smuggling contraband in the coffin. In her first public expression of emotion, Shaila explodes and calls him a "bastard." She contemplates the change in herself that this trauma has wrought: "Once upon a time we were well-brought-up women; we were dutiful wives who kept our heads veiled, our voices shy and sweet." From Ireland, many of the Indian Canadians, including Shaila, go to India to continue mourning. Shaila describes her parents as wealthy and "progressive." They do not mind Sikh friends dropping by with condolences, though Shaila cannot help but bristle. Her grandmother, on the other hand, has been a prisoner of tradition and its gender expectations for most of her life. She was widowed at age sixteen and has since lived a life of ascetic penitence and solitude, believing herself to be a "harbinger of bad luck." Shaila's mother calls this kind of behavior "mindless mortification." While other middle-aged widows and widowers are being matched with new spouses, Shaila is relieved to be left alone, even if it is because her grandmother's history designates her as "unlucky." Shaila travels with her family until she is numb from the blandness of diversion. In a deserted Himalayan temple, Shaila has a vision of her husband. He tells her: "You must finish alone what we started together." Knowing that her mother is a practical woman with "no patience with ghosts, prophetic dreams, holy men, and cults," Shaila tells her nothing of the vision but is spurred to return to Canada. Kusum has sold her house and moved into an ashram, or retreat, in Hardwar. Shaila considers this "running away," but Kusum says it is "pursuing inner peace." Shaila keeps in touch with Dr. Ranganathan, who has moved to Montreal and has not remarried. They share a melancholy bond but are comforted to have found new "relatives" in each other. At this point, Judith has done thorough and ambitious work observing, assessing, charting and analyzing the grief of the Indian Canadians. She matter-of-factly reports to Shaila that the community is stuck somewhere between the second and third stage of mourning, "depressed acceptance," according to the "grief management textbooks." In reaction to Judith's self-congratulatory chatter, Shaila can only manage the weak and ironic praise that Judith has "done impressive work." Judith asks Shaila to accompany her on a visit to a particularly "stubborn" and "ignorant" elderly couple, recent immigrants whose sons died in the crash. Shaila is reluctant because the couple are Sikh and she is Hindu, but Judith insists that their "Indian-ness" is mutual enough. At the apartment complex, Shaila is struck by the "Indian-ness" of the ghetto neighborhood; women wait for buses in saris as if they had never left Bombay. The elderly couple are diffident at first but open up when Shaila reveals that she has also lost her family. Shaila explains that if they sign the documents, the government will give them money, including air-fare to Ireland to identify the bodies. The husband emphasizes that "God will provide, not the government" and the wife insists that her boys will return. Judith presses Shaila to "convince" them, but Shaila merely thanks the couple for the tea. In the car Judith complains about working with the Indian immigrants, calling the next woman "a real mess." Shaila asks to be let out of the car, leaving Judith and her sterile, textbook approach to grief management. The story ends with Shaila living a quiet and joyless life in Toronto. She has sold her and Vikram's large house and lives in a small apartment. Kusum has written to say that she has seen her daughter's reincarnation in a Himalayan village; Dr. Ranganathan has moved to Texas and calls once a week. Walking home from an errand, Shaila hears "the voices of [her] family." They say: "Your time has come, . . . Go, be brave." Shaila drops the package she is carrying on a nearby park bench, symbolizing her venture into a new life and her break with an unproductive attachment to her husband and sons' spirits. She comments on her imminent future: "I do not know where this voyage I have begun will end." Nevertheless, she "drops the package" and "starts walking." - themes: gender roles and cultural transition; collective identity vs personal identity; assimilation vs multiculturalism

magical realism

mode of narration that inserts elements of fantasy into an otherwise realist text; suggestive of alternative consciousness