Lets be proud to be who we are

Where to start? I thinks perhaps for this post I want to focus more on the last two stories we read in class vs. Decolonizing of the Mind.  It's not at all because I cant connect my self with Decolonizing of the Mind, but in fact its the complete opposite. I want to speak of the two stories that were a bit different from my lifestyle, ones that I found harder to relate back to myself. The stories that really allowed me to look deeper into the true meaning that the author was trying to get across and even in some cases such as the last story... the meaning is still unknown.
      Decolonizing of the Mind  allowed me to understand that the Africans and I are on the same page as far as translating something from the native tongue into English is enormously hard at times. And often the definition does not always remain the same and may even perhaps lose its value through out the translation. It's always nearly impossible for me to translate English into Urdu  in order for my parents to understand me better. But its more impossible sometimes for me to translate Urdu into English or try and understand where my parents may be coming from when they say something to me in Urdu since my mind thinks in English.  ( I hope that makes sense) I do like when the author states that there are always good and bad story tellers and that a good one can always tell the same story many times but they will always remain fresh as the fist time they told it. With the differences were in the words, images, and tone of voice that could  make someone a good story teller and a bad story teller. I know many kids my age hate hearing stories from their parents. Funny how its always the same  6 stories they continue to tell us all their life. But with my dad even those 6 stories feel as if its a new story each time i hear it from you . As if I don't know the ending, he creates a suspense with his tone.( even though I've heard the story many times before) OK. so maybe I lied when I said I didn't want to speak of Decolonizing of the Mind. Every story deserves to be told
        I must say ... I do love that all the stories we have read thus far which  have all been very easy for me to connect my self to . Perhaps because I come from a different culture and I can easily relate to the feelings of these narrators or the situations of the stories.  Another typical story that I can relate myself to is  Wedding at the Cross  ... Bollywood movies have ruined me. I've grown norm to these storylines in the Asian culture. Guy and girl love each other. Guy doesn't have enough money . Father of girl says no based on economic status. Guy works hard, becomes wealthy and successful. Guy goes back for girls hand. And in most cases the girl is already married off to another guy . But in this story it was different then my 3 hour long bollywood movie! This time the girl refused to marry the guy . This time the guy changed not just in his bank account but because of being so brainwashed  and chasing after money and becoming greedy that he was no longer true to himself when the girl first fell in love with him . Also in this story the dad wanted to reform the guy his daughter wanted to marry. He wanted to colonize him and make him be something else "sharing the brain washing". The determining factor for his change was the main character felt embarassed, humilated, felt as if he was nothing after even rejecting his hand in marriage the father still gave him and hope and said he had seen many people start off from nothing and make it big.  Revenge against the father made him successful as well. The irony in this story was that the main character was trying to prove himself to the person he hated the most, in the end he became just like the person he hated. If you decolonize your mind you become free but with becoming free you become poor.  "serving your servant" I can relate this story to myself just because I have heard of many cases where the guy will ask for the girls hand but the father will always reject based on the status of the guy. In most cases if the guy is not a lawyer, a dr. or an engineer he is looked down upon and not god enough for the girl. It's a shame how money/status is the deciding factor instead of the characteristics of the human.
       The last story was by far my favorite story...yes even though it was gender bias and even though the author sends the message that woman are powerful with the use of their sexuality!  But none the less it was heartbreaking! The main character wanted to be colonized in this story! She took it as far as even changing her name simply because she wanted to sound pure, strangely enough her original name was the definition of pure. Poor Beatrice has an identity problem throughout the story and was not happy with who she was. (I believe we all go through this point, most of us recover safely and others fall into terrible situations as Beatrice did)  Her movement, her attitude, her confidence made her who she was. If only she could have been more confident in her self her attitude towards herself would have been very different which could have resulted to her walking around with her head help up high and not down low with shame of any sort. The main point from this story I believe was "how you think about yourself of what other people view you as" can really change a persons life. My heart went out to Beatrice especially when she tells her life story to the lori driver and he falls asleep on her I can relate this to myself because I am a person built up with walls and I only let a few in. The ones I let in I  have high expectations of . But when they do not meet my expectations I feel the way Beatrice did. I feel hurt. Its an awful feeling of opening up to someone and not getting the response back that you hope for. I was cheering her on when she stole the money and went shopping and bought her self a wig and bought herself some fancy things. Its a shame how such material things can make a person change ... change the way we view our self... our attitude, our confidence... its a shame. More power to her for spitting on the ground as she walked out of the bar. More Power to her!

Touched by Emotions

              I won't lie, this blog feels extremely hard for me to write about. I have mixed emotions about the author of this week, Nadine Gordimer. Some of her stories this week didn't leave me wanting more. I had no feelings of wanting to go back and re read the story because of how interested I was to understand it more and more. I felt as if her stories were to simple for me. Was it because I had heard so much about racial segregation? Was it because of all the history classes I've taken that it came as no big deal for me to hear about blacks being treated differently then whites?  On the other hand, at the end of her stories,   I felt my emotions were attached to the people of the story. My heart went out to them for being treated differently based upon color of skin. During each story I placed myself in their position and asked myself how I would feel if this had happened to me... Words can not explain sometimes... It truly is a sad thing to hear about these stories in detail. To gain an understanding of certain situations of how  people were treated differently because of their skin color.


             One of my least favorite stories of the three we read by Nadine Gordimer was, "Good climate, friendly inhabitants". Was it because I felt bad for the narrator being taken advantage of by a male? Was it because of my personal views on the male species of how they use the female and then disappear. Perhaps. This story came to be too predictable to me... There were times where I had to stop  my mind from wanting to yell at the narrator. Telling her to "wake up! Don't you see how he's playing you !". I wanted to take this woman and shake her by the shoulders and make her wake up . Sad part of it all was the only person that was really looking out for her was the one person she didn't trust because of his skin color. And the one person that she did trust ( whom she knew for a short period of time) took advantage of her. I can relate this story to my personal life in many ways but one way that sticks out to me is that .. I will be honest...I feel like I can trust someone more when they have something in common with me in regards of the issue for example its allot easier for me to trust someone my age then it would be someone who was younger. In this story ...unfortunately it was skin color.  Sometimes I wonder if she really knew what he was doing, and she just went along with it. I felt extremely sad for her at the end of the story, I felt like she wanted to go back to the man ... I really just wanted to shake this woman in the story... Its sad to see people were not trusted because of their skin color, sometimes I get the sense that people don't trust me either based on my religion/culture/ skin color. These issues defiantly exist today .. not as much as before perhaps. But before I forget I must quickly add in that I loved the explanation in the story of why jack had another name of what he went by depending on the location of where he was. But in the end he still knew who he was and that was all that mattered.
             My favorite story of the week, Amnesty mostly because I didn't understand the true reasoning of the story until we went over it in class. I would have to say I'm a bit drawn in more to this story because I am all about woman's rights and the appreciation of woman. So  after discussing this story in class. I loved the message that the author was trying to send to the readers.  people give all the credit to the men who fought for the rights... but as the famous saying goes " behind every successful man is a woman" ( firmly believe in that) . I  never once thought about the  woman who stayed back home while the men went off and fought for rights. I never once gave them credit considering how big of a role they played. The men did great things but other things were going on at home such as the families taking care of the people back home. Another message from this story was.. the future starts at home. The child in the story was given a name by the father to acknowledge the fathers role even though he was away from home. Education starts at home. You must shape the environment at home for the child if you expect them to change. I can easily connect this story with my life. Coming from an Asian culture, boys are always treated with more respect and are looked as the ones who can "make a change". Where as girls are expected to stay at home and produce babies and are good for nothing but that. People have the concept to think that males are the only ones who  participate in making  a change and that it has nothing to do with the woman who cooks that meal for that man so he can stay health and strong to fight the war or go to work the next day. People refuse to see how a woman makes a change, they refuse to appreciate a woman . I love this story simply because credit should go where credit is deserved.
         The third story was the story that left me very bitter and angry .  "Give it a rest, it's gone, its gone" was the attitude of the narrator that made me very angry . What if it was a white family that was asking for the body back of their relative? would the attitude still be the same?  Its unfortunate to hear these kind of situations happen all the time and even in some cases the families may not know that the body they buried was not the body of their family member.  There are many religions that require certain actions to be taken after someone has passed. In most cases,  the families just wanted to provide the proper care religiously. At first I didn't understand why the narrator was so admin about getting the body back all the sudden when in the start he didn't give  a care for it. The only reason the narrator beings to  investigate the body is because he feel he had failed as a white man . That even him being white  couldn't even bring the body back . His pride as a white man.  This story goes to show that a system is created where no one can win, not even the people who created the system. I can relate this story to my personal life because as a Muslim i know there are proper steps  that the family must take for the person who has passed away to make sure their soul is at rest. Knowing that some of these people are also Muslims and may not have the change to burry their loved ones the proper way hurts me . One can not even die peacefully? One can not even be buried by their loved one
         Although I may not have learned any great lessons from these stories, it was still awakening to know the different type of real life situations that took place and that take place .

The Week of Achebe

      A week of Achebes three stories were certainly not enough for me. At the end of the week i was so drawn in by his form of writing that I wanted to read more stories and discuss more in depth of each story . I loved the twist the author had  in each story of his. The use of irony kept me wanting more. I would have to announce Achebe as one of my new favorite authors, what really gets me about his form of writing is that it  leaves me confused in the end the first time I read it, the confusion makes me want to go back and re-read his writing again so i can completely understand his message. I love that! I love the mystery of not understanding it right away, I love that his story makes me be so interested that I go back to re read it for the second time to completely understand each and every thing about it.
     In "Image of Africa" Achebe writes how most Europeans were under the assumption that they believed they knew the history of Africa. Many went on to explain it in their own words, but never fully understood the true history. I love how the author  writes " What did I teach? African Literature. Now that was funny, he said, because he never had thought of Africa as having that kind of stuff, you know. By this time I was walking much faster. "Oh well," I heard him say finally, behind me. "I guess I have to take your course to find out" (Achebe 1). I can easily relate this back to many people I know and including my self. I never thought much of Africa. Sure I heard about the people dying of hunger but I always viewed Africa  as the place I always "felt sorry for", as the place that many were not educated. Africa up until these readings never really meant much to me. After reading "Image of Africa" it makes me realize I was quick to assume things  and that Africa really did have much beauty to it. It had been underestimated.
       "Girls at war" was one story that left me a bit angry at the end. The irony of the story is about a rich government man who talks highly of the people fighting for the country. Through out the story the man is described as someone who is saddened and worried for the people of the country . At one point he mentions how he will not dance at the party until the war is over and the people fighting for the country are safe. At the end of the story, the men is provided with an opportunity to save a soldier from the blast. Unfortunately the man denies this chance and quickly jumps out of the car himself at the same time telling Gladys not to worry about the solider either. The man quickly becomes selfish and his true colors come out when placed in the situation . I can relate this story to myself because I firmly believe everyone opinions change on certain issues til they are actually placed in the situation .
       My favorite story of the three was " The Madman". This story was one where I was so interested to completely understand it that I had to go back and read it for the second time. I loved the overall message Achebe is sending out, the message of what society can do to you . In this story Nwibe was considered crazy because he  was running around the market naked chasing and shouting to the people to stop the man. People automatically viewed him as being crazy and quickly based assumptions off of his frustration of losing his pants.  How society perceived you can change a person . Society judges people. What you say can be perceived as real. You believe what society tells you . I can quickly relate this overall message to me. I know at home sometimes  when my siblings accuse me of something I quickly get frustrated, during my frustration I start to shout and yell  which leads them to think I did it. Which further causes me to get more frustrated.  Most people believe that if you remain calm when being accused that you never truly did it in the first place.  When people accuse you of certain things, it can cause you to change your behavior towards them, and misunderstandings can be formed this way .
   I hope we continue to read many more stories of where I can quickly relate the readings back to my personal life to help me understand the author more. These three readings allowed me to look at certain situations more in depth.
  Irony- When bad things happen for good reasons or when good things happen for bad reasons.