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 .
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 .
I agree that for many people in the 21st century the evils of racism and discrimination can seem like old news. However, as you point out, Gordimer makes the historical issues very personal so that it is a new experience of old news. You do a good job in this piece of summarizing the main points of the stories and weaving your personal experience into it to show how your personal views influence your analysis of the stories.
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