I have the same role as I did in the first literature circle "White TIgers" - analyzing quotes that I felt were important and have some significance. Shaman was a chapter which was mainly focused on Maxine Hong's mother whose name we learn is Brave Orchid. The entire chapter talks about the life that Brave Orchid lived before she had Maxine - the easy life she had with the money her husband was sending her, her education at a medical school, the people she encountered, her sadness after the loss of her two children, and so much more.
"My mother is not soft; the girl with the small nose and dimpled underlip is soft. My mother is not humorous, not like the girl at the end who lifts her mocking chin to pose like Girl Graduate. My mother does not have smiling eyes; the old woman teacher (Dean Woo?) in front crinkles happily, and the one faculty member in the western suit smiles westernly. Most of the graduates are girls whose faces have not yet formed; my mother's face will not change anyone, except to age. She is intelligent, alert, pretty. I can't tell if she's happy." (pg. 58-59)
This quote shows and paints an image of the features that Maxine Hong's mother held. It gives me a clear picture in my mind about the type of person that Maxine Hong's mother had been. One of my favorite parts of this quote is when she says 'smiling eyes' because smiling is something that people normally wouldn't use to describe ones eyes but by using this description I can see that Maxine Hong's mother was something with maybe piercing eyes, and not shining and sparkling or 'smiling'. In this quote there is much confusion and thought going through Maxine's head about the mother she never knew.
"In America my mother has eyes as strong as boulders, never once skittering off a face, but she has not learned to place decorations and phonograph needles, nor has she stopped seeing land on the other side of the oceans. Now her eyes include the relatives in China, as they once included my father smiling and smiling in his many western outfits, a different one for each photograph that he sent from America.
He and his friends took pictures of one another in bathing suits at Coney Island beach, the salt wind from the Atlantic blowing their hair. He's the one in the middle with his arms about the necks of his buddies...My fatherr, white shirt sleeves rolled up, smiles in front of a wall of clean laundry. In the spring he wears a new straw hat, cocked at a Fred Astaire angle. He stpes out, dancing down the stairs, one foot forward, one back, a hand in his pocket." (pg. 59-60)
And so I was right, her eyes were like 'boulders' not 'shining' - they were hard not smooth. Maxine Hong compares the past and present and how she thinks her mother has changed from those times. This is a quote where I also learned a little about the type of person her father was. It seems as if her father had been the opposite of her mother - more outgoing and more friendly, and it goes to show that opposites do attract. There is a hint that her father and mother had a loving relationship and that her mother had really cared for her father
"I keep looking to see whether she was afraid. Year after year my father did not come home or send for her. Their two children had been dead for ten years. If he did not return soon, there would be no more children. My father did send money regularly, though, and she had nobody to spend it on but herself. She bought good clothes and shoes. Then she decided to use the oney for becoming a doctor. She did not leave for Canton immediately after the children died. In China there was time to complete feelings." (pg. 60)
Maxine's mother must've gone through a lot not having a husband there to be for her while she was going through the tough times after losing her TWO children. Even though she had been going through these terrible things she seemed to be a very strong and confident person trying to get on with her life and live it while she was still in her youth. And soon she realized that instead of using the money she was getting from her husband-far-far-away, she decided to do something more worthy and time consuming than shopping - she decided to get an education. I admired Maxine's mother for doing this because she was being strong for not only herself but for her husband as well and even her dead children. She didn't try to look at the negatives or the past too much and tried to look straight ahead and out to her future.
"...she took out her pens and inkbox, an atlas of the world, a tea set and tea cannister, sewing box, her ruler with the real gold markings, writing paper, envelopes with the thick red stripe to signify no bad news, her bowl and silver chopsticks...She would clean her own bowl and a small, limited area; she would have one drawer to sort, one bed to make." (pg. 61)
Although this is a very random quote and doesn't seem to show much significance I thought it was interesting for the book to be listing the things that Maxine's mom was carrying. Maybe each item is supposed to have a significance and open up different parts of Maxine's mother's personality and the type of person she is. She seems to be very prepared and cautious person bringing so many items to a school especially unusual items like a tea set and tea cannister - maybe she was trying to keep her culture as close as she could even if she was gaining an education in America.
"Chang Chung-ching, father of medicine, had told how the two great winds, yang and yin, blew through the human body...By the time the students graduated - those of them who persevered - their range of knowledge would be wider than that of any other doctor in history. Women have now been practicing medicine for about fifty years." (pg. 63)
This quote didn't have much to do with Maxine's mother herself, but it did tell a little about history - more specifically Chinese history. Also it gives a little information about what we might want to look forward to in the near future, back then the generation was looking at the evolution of women and how they were becoming more superior in the world. Maybe in the near future for 'us' as in people of the 21st century, we're supposed to look toward artificial intelligence and new life. It's an interesting fact that I learned while reading Shaman.
"There were two places where a student could study: the dining hall with its tables cleared for work, everyone chanting during the common memorization sessions; or the table in her own room. My mother usually stayed in her room or, when a roommate wanted the privacy of it also, went to a secret hiding place she had hunted out during the first week of school...She quickly built a reputation for being brilliant, a natural scholar who could glance at a book and know it." (pg. 63)
Another quote which I felt expressed Maxine's mother's personality - she was independent, strong, knowledgeable, intelligent, confident, and actually slightly cowardly because she didn't want the others in her dorm to know that she studied so much, she wanted to think that she was that smart. Actually, she felt it was an obligation to be that smart because she was older and elderly and was supposed to be wiser and help and guide those that were younger and had a longer life to live. She didn't want to be distracted while studying, she probably didn't chat much with others while she was studying, she wanted to become successful on her own, she just wanted to do everything alone.
"My mother may have been afraid, but she would be a dragoness ("my totem, your totem"). She could make herself not weak. During danger she fanned out her dragon claws and riffled her red sequin scales and unfolded her coiling green stripes. Danger was a good time for showing off. Like the dragons living in temple eaves, my mother looked down on plain people who were lonely and afraid." (pg. 67)
Using metaphors can often open people's mind about things or look at something in a different way. The way I see it, the closest thing Maxine could compare her mom to was a dragon, or should I say that might've been the only thing to compare her mom too. When reading this quote it made sense because like a dragon she was independent. In stories and fantasy books that I've read there are some dragons that live in 'packs' or 'colonies' but the majority are all isolated living independent and only getting together if they are in need to breed. Her mom liked the attention that she had as an intelligent person just as dragon's seem to attention they get while flying in the sky. People's compliments make them (Maxine's mom and the dragon) happy, and they don't want to hear anything bad about them or they might just get angry. According to this quote Maxine's mom didn't look up to those that were afraid, and I assume that dragon's must've been the same as they did not take self pity on those that they have killed and devoured. Maxine's mom and dragons share many similarities and I don't think there's another animal that has as many same skills and characteristics as a dragon has.
"No true head, no eyes, no face, so low in its level of incarnation it did not have the shape of a recognizable animal. It knocked me down and began to strangle me. It was bigger than a wolf, bigger than an ape, and growing. I would have stabbed it. I would have cut it up, and we would be mopping blood this morning, but - a Sitting Ghost mutation - it had an extra arm that wrestled my hand away from the knife." (pg. 72)
This is a condensed version of what had happened between Maxine's mother and the so called 'Sitting Ghost' - Maxine's mother had said this while explaining what had happened to her and the 'Sitting Ghost' to her friends and she was explaining and talking about all the details of the ghost. Maxine's mother seems to like to get everybody's attention and get them on their toes - she seems to be an excellent story teller with a knack of making everything so alive and reinacted.
"...my mother returned to her home village a doctor...My mother wore a silk robe and western shoes with big heels, and she rode home carried in a sedan chair. She had gone away ordinary and come back miraculous, like the ancient magicians who came down from the mountains." (pg. 76)
She had apparently graduated from the medical school she attended - successful and ready to help those in need. It's amazing what education can earn you - respect from the village and being treated like an empress. The villagers must've been very happy and impressed with the results of her hard work and constant studying.
"My mother would buy her slave from a professional whose little girls stood neatly in a row and bowed together when a customer looked them over...my mother, who distrusts people with public concerns, braggarts, went over to the quiet older girls with the dignified bows." (pg. 79)
Again - Maxine's mom only wanted the best, she may have seemed a little snobbish in this part, but in a quote before this (which I didn't find any significance in so I didn't put it here) she had seen girls crying because their parents were selling them for money. The parents were so poor they didn't have anything else to offer but their daughters. Maxine's mom didn't want to deal with all that drama so she moved on to the more sophisticated section - the section that was suited more to her liking. Maxine's mom had gone to the other section and found a quite pleasant girl whom she paid half the price for than originally offered by tricking the person that had been selling the slave girl. (I didn't put that quote here either because it wasn't much.) In that part of the book I saw a sly, sneaky, but most of all very clever side of Maxine's mom, the side that had been shown in the earlier part of the book where she enjoyed studying alone and felt it had been her duty to be smarter. Maxine's mom seemed to be a very bright woman getting away with everything and getting her way with everything.
"My mother's enthusiasm for me is duller than for the slave girl; nor did I replace the older brother and sister who died while they were still cuddly. At department stores I angered my mother when I could not bargain without shame, poor people's shame. She stood in back of me and prodded and pinched, forcing me to tyranslate her bargaining, word for word." (pg. 82)
Maxine seemed to feel some guilt in this quote. I felt a feeling like "I'm not good enough", Maxine's mom might've been harsh on Maxine because Maxine wasn't a girl like her, she wasn't truly able to stand up for herself like her mother had her entire life and only felt pity for those that didn't live a nice life like one that she had. I could see more compassion in Maxine than her mom, but more strength and confidence in Maxine's mom. Both have pros and cons, but mix them together and I think that would be the best combination.
Thursday, March 15, 2007
Monday, March 12, 2007
Hawaiian Ghost Story
"This happened when I was 13 years old when I use to live in Hawaii. I'm 21 years old now and live in Maryland. Many things have occurred that were strange and unexplainable in my life. This is one of the scariest event that happened to myself and 4 other friends of mine.
To give a history detail of the two schools I went to is that both elementary and middle school were across one another and both were buried under ancient Hawaiian burial graves. Many things have occured and stories about the schools have been passed down by teachers.
I use to attend Aliamanu Elementary and Aliamanu Intermediate School. It was Halloween night and my friends and I decided to see if the schools were both haunted. We heard many stories about how a mother and a child were both killed in the fields next to my school and that their hands were chopped off, another is the instruments in the band room and the music room of both school will play by itself at night.
My friends and I decided to walk towards the old stairway leading to the schools it was 1:00a.m. at night. We already had our candy from trick or treating and we wanted to investigate whether the stories about the old school were true. Now in the school everything is locked up and there is a gate that is about 30 ft high and no one can enter or leave since the gate covers all around and there is brick that hold it together. It is like a prison cell gate. Anyway, My friends and I decided to walk down the stairs when we started to notice that the school yard seemed to have elongated then as we approached the middle we started hearing loud drums and instruments in both the elementary school and the intermediate school we ended up running back up the stairs to be safe. We came back to the steps and decided to talk but out of nowhere we noticed that one of the portable lights that was white in color turned to red instantly and it freaked us all out we decided to wait and see what happened.
What happened amazed us because we looked at the gates where no one can enter or leave and saw a misty white figure looked like a girl and heard a loud scream asking for help. My friends and i decided to go down and see if we could help and when we got to the middle of the school yard we started to hear laughing and we stopped in out tracks. It wasn't a pleasant laugh it was an evil malicious laugh and it brought us goose bumps. To our amazement we ended up running back to the stairwell as fast as we could because something didn't feel right. We ran to the nearest park and decided to calm down. After awhile, we went back to see the school before going home. It was around 2:15 a.m. and the red light was gone and everything was back to normal."
http://www.castleofspirits.com/stories04/hauntedhawaiian.html
To give a history detail of the two schools I went to is that both elementary and middle school were across one another and both were buried under ancient Hawaiian burial graves. Many things have occured and stories about the schools have been passed down by teachers.
I use to attend Aliamanu Elementary and Aliamanu Intermediate School. It was Halloween night and my friends and I decided to see if the schools were both haunted. We heard many stories about how a mother and a child were both killed in the fields next to my school and that their hands were chopped off, another is the instruments in the band room and the music room of both school will play by itself at night.
My friends and I decided to walk towards the old stairway leading to the schools it was 1:00a.m. at night. We already had our candy from trick or treating and we wanted to investigate whether the stories about the old school were true. Now in the school everything is locked up and there is a gate that is about 30 ft high and no one can enter or leave since the gate covers all around and there is brick that hold it together. It is like a prison cell gate. Anyway, My friends and I decided to walk down the stairs when we started to notice that the school yard seemed to have elongated then as we approached the middle we started hearing loud drums and instruments in both the elementary school and the intermediate school we ended up running back up the stairs to be safe. We came back to the steps and decided to talk but out of nowhere we noticed that one of the portable lights that was white in color turned to red instantly and it freaked us all out we decided to wait and see what happened.
What happened amazed us because we looked at the gates where no one can enter or leave and saw a misty white figure looked like a girl and heard a loud scream asking for help. My friends and i decided to go down and see if we could help and when we got to the middle of the school yard we started to hear laughing and we stopped in out tracks. It wasn't a pleasant laugh it was an evil malicious laugh and it brought us goose bumps. To our amazement we ended up running back to the stairwell as fast as we could because something didn't feel right. We ran to the nearest park and decided to calm down. After awhile, we went back to see the school before going home. It was around 2:15 a.m. and the red light was gone and everything was back to normal."
http://www.castleofspirits.com/stories04/hauntedhawaiian.html
Tuesday, March 6, 2007
New Critic (post 2)
This is another bunch of quotes that I thought were appealing in Woman Warrior.
"In dark and silver dreams I had seen him falling from the sky, each night closer to the earth, his soul a star. Just before labor began, the last star rays sank into my belly. My husband would talk to me and not go, though I said for him to return to the battlefield. He caught the baby, a boy, and put it on my breast. "What are we going to do with this?" he asked, holding up the piece of umbilical cord that had been closest to the baby." (pg. 40)
I thought this was an interesting way for Maxine Hong to illustrate pregnancy. Instead of going into the details which many readers might find a little disturbing, she creates a metaphor which she believes represents how pregnancy happens. I also thought the quote was funny at the end where they ask what they are supposed to do with the umbilical cord. In the next paragraph or the one after that, Maxine Hong explains that they have to keep it so that they can show their baby boy. She said that when she grew older her parents gave her her umbilical cord which had been all shriveled and dry, so she tells her husband (father of the baby) to wrap the umbilical cord around the pole of a red flag.
"The swords opened and closed, scissoring madly, metal zinging along metal. Unable to leave my skysword to work itself, I would be watching the swords move like puppets..." (pg. 41)
The description of the swords slashing together was incredible. I could really hear the sounds coming from the swords and the positions they were in. When I had read this I actually flinched a little because the 'metal zinging along metal' didn't give me a pleasant noise. Instead of saying the swords hit each other, Maxine Hong goes into depth of the imagery and sounds given during this battle scene.
"We faced our emperor personally. We beheaded him, cleaned out the palace, and inaugurated the peasant who would begin the new order. In his rags he sat on the throne facing south, and we, a great red crowd, bowed to him three times. He commended some of us who were his first generals." (pg. 42)
This part was very direct and straight to the point, there was no zigzagging around the idea of the emperor being beheaded, except I think that maybe it would've been better. She could've described how the head came off but maybe that would be disturbing to some. Maxine Hong (as Fa Mulan) creates new order and elects a man, a peasant specifically, who she knows has the best interest for the people of China because he had been through the sufferings and other treacherous things that the previous 'dead' emperor had placed upon the people. From this point I thought of the rest of the story as a 'new beginning' because Maxine Hong 'Fa Mulan' had accomplished what she had wanted to and the training up in the mountains with the old man and woman had really come to good use.
"I touched the Long Wall with my own fingers, running the edge of my hand between the stones, tracing the grooves the builders' hands had made." (pg. 42-43)
Another descriptive quote written by Maxine Hong - just the imagery is wonderful. It may be one sentence but it captures so much within it. Also, I believe that when saying 'Long Wall' Maxine Hong is referring to the Great Wall of China which is one of the Seven Wonders of the World today, so I saw importance of history in this quote as well.
"I attacked the baron's stronghold alone..."I want your life in payment for your crimes against the villagers."...'Girls are maggots in the rice.' 'It is more profitable to raise geese than daughters' He quoted to me the sayings I hated." (pg. 43)
Finally, 'Fa Mulan' finishes all that she wanted to do by killing the baron. She goes in alone, which proves courage and that she is not afraid to do what's right even if it means going by herself. She talks to the baron and explains why she's there, therefore giving his death a meaning. When the baron responds to her by saying these awful quotes - sexist quotes - she is frustrated and angry. I was angry as well because I could not believe this is actually what some of the men thought in China. How can you compare a woman, a human being to a maggot?! An insect! It's just unbelievevable. It's unacceptable and once hearing what the baron said I knew that 'Fa Mulan' was going to kill him - no doubt at all.
"My mother and father and the entire clan would be living happily on the money I had sent them. My parents had bought their coffins. They would sacrifice a pig to the gods that I had returned. From the words on my back, and how they were fulfilled, the villagers would make a legend about my perfect filiality." (pg. 45)
Apparently, from all her success in the battles she had made some money to send back home to her family who had probably been worrying and awaiting the news. I could sense the happiness and thanks that the family had for the gods, since they had kept 'Fa Mulan' alive and well.
The words that she's referring to are the scars on her back that her parents had engraved to keep her safe during her journey and during the battles. She is saying that the scars had helped her through and their purpose had been fulfilled. The villagers would celebrate and honor her as a heroine - a heroine who made a new life for all in China.
"To avenge my family, I'd have to storm across China to take back our farm from the Communists; I'd have to rage across the United States to take back the laundry in New York and the one in California. Nobody in history has conquered and united both North America and Asia. A descendant of eight pole fighters, I ought to be able to set out confidently, march straight down our street, get going right now. There's work to do, ground to cover. Surely, the eightly pole fighters, though unseen, would follow me and lead me and protect me, as it the wont of ancestors." (pg. 49)
In this quote, Maxine Hong is back from her fantasy about living her life as Fa Mulan, but she is comparing her life to Mulan's. It's a very interesting quote which I didn't understand at first and still am a little lost, but she's talking about the journey that she would take to 'avenge her family' if they were hurt in anyway and what she plans on doing if that ever happens.
"Fights are confusing as to who has won." (pg. 51)
This is a very simple statement, but it is absolutely true. It may only be eight words but it applies to many different things. Fights are very confusing as to who has won because it depends on the perspective of people and what they believe 'winning' is. Maybe someone would think that winning is conquering the enemy, or maybe it's learning morals and lessons. Who knows? Each person has their own idea of who has won a fight and each person has their own right to think however they want.
"I live now where there are Chinese and Japanese, but no emigrants from my own village looking at me as if I had failed them. Living among one's own emigrant villagers can give a good Chinese far from China glory and a place...But I am useless, one more girl who couldn't be sold When I visit the family now, I wrap my American successes around me like a private shawl; I am worthy of eating the food." (pg. 52)
Maxine Hong gives an idea of how her life is different from what it would be if the people from her old village were living around her. With the mixed cultures of Japanese and Chinese Maxine Hong seems to be more comfortable and happier with herself. She has gained self confidence from being in America and knows that she's a girl, a girl who is worthy of eating her food, and worthy of her freedom.
" "When fishing for treasures in the flood, be careful not to pull in girls," because that is what one says about daughters...I read in an anthropology book that Chinese say, "Girls are necessary too"; I have never heard the Chinese I know make this concession. Perhaps it was a saying in another village. I refuse to shy my way anymore through our Chinatown, which tasks me with the old sayings and the stories." (pg. 52- 53)
The first part of the quote before the ... has a different idea than the part after the ..., but this is why I connected them together. Because Maxine Hong is trying to figure out the importance of women, and the importance of herself she is learning more and more about the ways that not only her family, but how other people might think. As she says, "Perhaps it was a saying in another village", so maybe other villagers treated women with more importance. Maxine Hong seems to want to find a source that says how important women and girls are because it will make her a stronger person, mentally, spiritually, and physically.
"The swordswoman and I are not so dissimilar...What we have in common are the words at our backs. The idioms for revenge are "report a crime" and "report to five families." The reporting is the vengeance-so many words-"chink" words and "gook" words too-that they do not fit on my skin." (pg. 53)
Maxine Hong refers to the scars on her back that she had when she was Fa Mulan, but also to the invisible scars on her back as she is then. She explains similarities of the lives that both her and the swordswoman live. They both have writings on their back - one visible the other invisible - and how that writing has affected the way they live and the values that they follow.
"In dark and silver dreams I had seen him falling from the sky, each night closer to the earth, his soul a star. Just before labor began, the last star rays sank into my belly. My husband would talk to me and not go, though I said for him to return to the battlefield. He caught the baby, a boy, and put it on my breast. "What are we going to do with this?" he asked, holding up the piece of umbilical cord that had been closest to the baby." (pg. 40)
I thought this was an interesting way for Maxine Hong to illustrate pregnancy. Instead of going into the details which many readers might find a little disturbing, she creates a metaphor which she believes represents how pregnancy happens. I also thought the quote was funny at the end where they ask what they are supposed to do with the umbilical cord. In the next paragraph or the one after that, Maxine Hong explains that they have to keep it so that they can show their baby boy. She said that when she grew older her parents gave her her umbilical cord which had been all shriveled and dry, so she tells her husband (father of the baby) to wrap the umbilical cord around the pole of a red flag.
"The swords opened and closed, scissoring madly, metal zinging along metal. Unable to leave my skysword to work itself, I would be watching the swords move like puppets..." (pg. 41)
The description of the swords slashing together was incredible. I could really hear the sounds coming from the swords and the positions they were in. When I had read this I actually flinched a little because the 'metal zinging along metal' didn't give me a pleasant noise. Instead of saying the swords hit each other, Maxine Hong goes into depth of the imagery and sounds given during this battle scene.
"We faced our emperor personally. We beheaded him, cleaned out the palace, and inaugurated the peasant who would begin the new order. In his rags he sat on the throne facing south, and we, a great red crowd, bowed to him three times. He commended some of us who were his first generals." (pg. 42)
This part was very direct and straight to the point, there was no zigzagging around the idea of the emperor being beheaded, except I think that maybe it would've been better. She could've described how the head came off but maybe that would be disturbing to some. Maxine Hong (as Fa Mulan) creates new order and elects a man, a peasant specifically, who she knows has the best interest for the people of China because he had been through the sufferings and other treacherous things that the previous 'dead' emperor had placed upon the people. From this point I thought of the rest of the story as a 'new beginning' because Maxine Hong 'Fa Mulan' had accomplished what she had wanted to and the training up in the mountains with the old man and woman had really come to good use.
"I touched the Long Wall with my own fingers, running the edge of my hand between the stones, tracing the grooves the builders' hands had made." (pg. 42-43)
Another descriptive quote written by Maxine Hong - just the imagery is wonderful. It may be one sentence but it captures so much within it. Also, I believe that when saying 'Long Wall' Maxine Hong is referring to the Great Wall of China which is one of the Seven Wonders of the World today, so I saw importance of history in this quote as well.
"I attacked the baron's stronghold alone..."I want your life in payment for your crimes against the villagers."...'Girls are maggots in the rice.' 'It is more profitable to raise geese than daughters' He quoted to me the sayings I hated." (pg. 43)
Finally, 'Fa Mulan' finishes all that she wanted to do by killing the baron. She goes in alone, which proves courage and that she is not afraid to do what's right even if it means going by herself. She talks to the baron and explains why she's there, therefore giving his death a meaning. When the baron responds to her by saying these awful quotes - sexist quotes - she is frustrated and angry. I was angry as well because I could not believe this is actually what some of the men thought in China. How can you compare a woman, a human being to a maggot?! An insect! It's just unbelievevable. It's unacceptable and once hearing what the baron said I knew that 'Fa Mulan' was going to kill him - no doubt at all.
"My mother and father and the entire clan would be living happily on the money I had sent them. My parents had bought their coffins. They would sacrifice a pig to the gods that I had returned. From the words on my back, and how they were fulfilled, the villagers would make a legend about my perfect filiality." (pg. 45)
Apparently, from all her success in the battles she had made some money to send back home to her family who had probably been worrying and awaiting the news. I could sense the happiness and thanks that the family had for the gods, since they had kept 'Fa Mulan' alive and well.
The words that she's referring to are the scars on her back that her parents had engraved to keep her safe during her journey and during the battles. She is saying that the scars had helped her through and their purpose had been fulfilled. The villagers would celebrate and honor her as a heroine - a heroine who made a new life for all in China.
"To avenge my family, I'd have to storm across China to take back our farm from the Communists; I'd have to rage across the United States to take back the laundry in New York and the one in California. Nobody in history has conquered and united both North America and Asia. A descendant of eight pole fighters, I ought to be able to set out confidently, march straight down our street, get going right now. There's work to do, ground to cover. Surely, the eightly pole fighters, though unseen, would follow me and lead me and protect me, as it the wont of ancestors." (pg. 49)
In this quote, Maxine Hong is back from her fantasy about living her life as Fa Mulan, but she is comparing her life to Mulan's. It's a very interesting quote which I didn't understand at first and still am a little lost, but she's talking about the journey that she would take to 'avenge her family' if they were hurt in anyway and what she plans on doing if that ever happens.
"Fights are confusing as to who has won." (pg. 51)
This is a very simple statement, but it is absolutely true. It may only be eight words but it applies to many different things. Fights are very confusing as to who has won because it depends on the perspective of people and what they believe 'winning' is. Maybe someone would think that winning is conquering the enemy, or maybe it's learning morals and lessons. Who knows? Each person has their own idea of who has won a fight and each person has their own right to think however they want.
"I live now where there are Chinese and Japanese, but no emigrants from my own village looking at me as if I had failed them. Living among one's own emigrant villagers can give a good Chinese far from China glory and a place...But I am useless, one more girl who couldn't be sold When I visit the family now, I wrap my American successes around me like a private shawl; I am worthy of eating the food." (pg. 52)
Maxine Hong gives an idea of how her life is different from what it would be if the people from her old village were living around her. With the mixed cultures of Japanese and Chinese Maxine Hong seems to be more comfortable and happier with herself. She has gained self confidence from being in America and knows that she's a girl, a girl who is worthy of eating her food, and worthy of her freedom.
" "When fishing for treasures in the flood, be careful not to pull in girls," because that is what one says about daughters...I read in an anthropology book that Chinese say, "Girls are necessary too"; I have never heard the Chinese I know make this concession. Perhaps it was a saying in another village. I refuse to shy my way anymore through our Chinatown, which tasks me with the old sayings and the stories." (pg. 52- 53)
The first part of the quote before the ... has a different idea than the part after the ..., but this is why I connected them together. Because Maxine Hong is trying to figure out the importance of women, and the importance of herself she is learning more and more about the ways that not only her family, but how other people might think. As she says, "Perhaps it was a saying in another village", so maybe other villagers treated women with more importance. Maxine Hong seems to want to find a source that says how important women and girls are because it will make her a stronger person, mentally, spiritually, and physically.
"The swordswoman and I are not so dissimilar...What we have in common are the words at our backs. The idioms for revenge are "report a crime" and "report to five families." The reporting is the vengeance-so many words-"chink" words and "gook" words too-that they do not fit on my skin." (pg. 53)
Maxine Hong refers to the scars on her back that she had when she was Fa Mulan, but also to the invisible scars on her back as she is then. She explains similarities of the lives that both her and the swordswoman live. They both have writings on their back - one visible the other invisible - and how that writing has affected the way they live and the values that they follow.
Sunday, March 4, 2007
New Critic
In English Class we are doing Literature circles and we have to choose a role to play. I chose to be a New Critic and my role is to find passages of importance and significance.
"Even if she had to rage across all China, a swordswoman got even with anybody who hurt her family. Perhaps women were once so dangerous that they had to have their feet bound. It was a woman who invented white crane boxing only two hundred years ago." (pg. 19)
Through this quote I could see the importance of women in the Chinese culture. They invented 'white crane boxing' and some were afraid of the swordswomen because they seeked revenge in honor of their family. Maxine Hong is asking herself why the Chinese women had to bound their feet and came with an idea that they were just to threatening. "Were women in China really that strong?", I asked myself this while reading this passage and according to the author, yes, they were.
" "No, I haven't," I would have said in real life, mad at the Chinese for lying so much. "I'm starved. Do you have any cookies? I like chocolate chip cookies...They gave me an egg, as if it were my birthday, and tea, though they were older than I, but I poured for them." (pg. 21)
Apparently being 'respectful' in China is not saying what you really want, you just say what you think others would want you to say. Both of these quotes pulled from one page in the book gave me an image of respect in China in different issues. The second quote is similar to other cultures where you have to treat elders with utmost respect and show it to them by doing some obvious things, in this case Maxine Hong poured tea for them.
"I hurried along, again collecting wood and edibles. I ate nothing and only drank the snow my fires made run...my eyesight sharp with hunger, I saw deer and used their trails when our ways coincided. Where the deer nibbled, I gathered the fungus, the fungus of immortality."...In the warming water I put roots, nuts, and the fungus of immortality. Oh, green joyous rush inside my mouth, my head, my stomach, my toes, my soul-the best meal of my life." (pg.25)
There was a lot of action and description in this quote and the use of senses. Maxine Hong as the character Fa Mulan, watches the deer to find the types of food that are edible. I think that it's interesting how she uses the term 'fungus of immortality' as if it's the food that will make her survive longer in the wild and will make her stronger and less vulnerable to anything that might hurt her. I thought it was also funny and interesting where she says that the food that she's collected in the wild has become the 'best meal of her life' - is that implying that the food from the wilderness is natural therefore making it the best for your body? or did she just really enjoy those types of food?
"The rabbit and I studied each other. Rabbits taste like chickens...It turned its face once toward me, then jumped into the fire. The fire went down for a moment, as if crouching in surprise, then the flames shot up taller than before. When the fire became calm again, I saw the rabbit had turned into meat, browned just right. I ate it, knowing the rabbit had sacrificed itself for me. It had made me a gift of meat." (pg. 26)
While reading 'White Tigers' I came upon this quote which really caught my attention because the rabbit jumped in the fire while Maxine Hong was on the verge of dying from starvation. She had been making eye contact with the animal and suddenly it just 'JUMPS' and I thought this was really amusing. It was a symbol of sacrifice and possibly a sign that the old man and woman had been watching her and when they saw how hungry she was they sent this animal to give her a meal.
"Even if she had to rage across all China, a swordswoman got even with anybody who hurt her family. Perhaps women were once so dangerous that they had to have their feet bound. It was a woman who invented white crane boxing only two hundred years ago." (pg. 19)
Through this quote I could see the importance of women in the Chinese culture. They invented 'white crane boxing' and some were afraid of the swordswomen because they seeked revenge in honor of their family. Maxine Hong is asking herself why the Chinese women had to bound their feet and came with an idea that they were just to threatening. "Were women in China really that strong?", I asked myself this while reading this passage and according to the author, yes, they were.
" "No, I haven't," I would have said in real life, mad at the Chinese for lying so much. "I'm starved. Do you have any cookies? I like chocolate chip cookies...They gave me an egg, as if it were my birthday, and tea, though they were older than I, but I poured for them." (pg. 21)
Apparently being 'respectful' in China is not saying what you really want, you just say what you think others would want you to say. Both of these quotes pulled from one page in the book gave me an image of respect in China in different issues. The second quote is similar to other cultures where you have to treat elders with utmost respect and show it to them by doing some obvious things, in this case Maxine Hong poured tea for them.
"I hurried along, again collecting wood and edibles. I ate nothing and only drank the snow my fires made run...my eyesight sharp with hunger, I saw deer and used their trails when our ways coincided. Where the deer nibbled, I gathered the fungus, the fungus of immortality."...In the warming water I put roots, nuts, and the fungus of immortality. Oh, green joyous rush inside my mouth, my head, my stomach, my toes, my soul-the best meal of my life." (pg.25)
There was a lot of action and description in this quote and the use of senses. Maxine Hong as the character Fa Mulan, watches the deer to find the types of food that are edible. I think that it's interesting how she uses the term 'fungus of immortality' as if it's the food that will make her survive longer in the wild and will make her stronger and less vulnerable to anything that might hurt her. I thought it was also funny and interesting where she says that the food that she's collected in the wild has become the 'best meal of her life' - is that implying that the food from the wilderness is natural therefore making it the best for your body? or did she just really enjoy those types of food?
"The rabbit and I studied each other. Rabbits taste like chickens...It turned its face once toward me, then jumped into the fire. The fire went down for a moment, as if crouching in surprise, then the flames shot up taller than before. When the fire became calm again, I saw the rabbit had turned into meat, browned just right. I ate it, knowing the rabbit had sacrificed itself for me. It had made me a gift of meat." (pg. 26)
While reading 'White Tigers' I came upon this quote which really caught my attention because the rabbit jumped in the fire while Maxine Hong was on the verge of dying from starvation. She had been making eye contact with the animal and suddenly it just 'JUMPS' and I thought this was really amusing. It was a symbol of sacrifice and possibly a sign that the old man and woman had been watching her and when they saw how hungry she was they sent this animal to give her a meal.
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