1. A place that is meaningful to me is Tibet. It is my country but I have never been there and I am no longer allowed to enter.
2. I have a transformational experience with language both Tibetan and English. I  struggle because of the linguistic mode because I think and reflect in both languages.
3. A time where I felt displaced was when I came to America from India. Not being able to speak the language and not knowing the customs was very difficult.

1. A time I felt displaced was when I went to a different state

3. Rather than one place, a certain walking routine leads me to think of many memories

4. I speak both English and Chinese, but sometimes I end up speaking Chinglish

Question 1: Overcoming a family loss, led to the feeling of displacement and hard transitioning.

Question 1: The feeling of displacement in the role I played in the past and now in my family.

Question 3: Where I met my best friend which now is closed down, caused a sense of displacement the other day when we walked around it.

1. How would you feel if you were in Aciman’s position?
2. Do you think Aciman is only hurting himself by trying to mourn Straus Park and relive the past?
3. Why do you think the article was named “Shadow Cities”?

The Female System

 

By Hillary Soto

 

“Girl Power”

A phrase written on shirts, hats, and stickers.

Ironic. Isn’t it? Because we can’t even seem to stick together.

We tear each other down.

For what?

We want to be better than each other.

For what?

For validation?

For satisfaction?

It’ll leave you empty if that’s what you’re seeking for.

Whatever it is it’s not worth it.

How can you bring a sister down over a boyfriend?

My mom always told me to never fight with a girl over a boy.

“He’s just a boy.”

“There are many other men in this world, why fight over one?”

Many girls don’t understand this.

One of my favorite songs by Lana Del Rey says “This is what makes us girls, we don’t stick together ‘cause we put love first. Something that we’d die for, it’s our curse”

She’s right.

Females care more about their love life than doing their friends right.

But who’s going to be there when that boy breaks your fragile heart?

That’s right, your girls.

Look at guys and how they get along

It keeps me thinking, where did females go wrong?

For us, success is measured by which female is doing better

Why can’t just simply succeed together?

Be happy for each other

Congratulate each other

Because we all come from gorgeous, strong, mothers.

Instead of talking behind her back,

Communicate if there’s an issue and be direct.

“If you don’t have anything nice to say, don’t say it at all.”

Females should take that to the heart because we are shady from the start.

No matter how much you dislike a female, they have something good in them

Don’t point out the bad to make them feel bad

Don’t make other girls feel insecure because you don’t feel good about yourself

Uplift them instead, you have no idea what’s going on in their heads.

Girls, no matter who you are, or where you come from, you are a female.

A strong, independent, beautiful female.

We all have different sets of talents, skills and traits.

We also have similar things that we can relate.

So why do we make each other feel so displaced?

We have the power to do anything if we stick together

Look at these males, they’re on top of the world, they can do anything they want because they stick together.

We can do anything a male can do if we work hard enough together.

A president, you can be one.

A boss, you can be one.

Getting along, we can achieve that.

Girls are always being put down by society

So why should us, females, keep it going?

Support.

Support each other’s opinions

Support each other’s styles

Support each other’s choices

We call each other names, but don’t you realize?

We all get called the same.

Instead of the hate, we should treat each other with respect

Because who will respect us back if we don’t?

Respect starts with us.

Women are marginalized in society

which means we’ll have to work hard to accomplish equality. 

But how will we accomplish something so great, when all we are doing is introducing more hate?

Ladies, think of your actions

And think of your sisters

Because only with truth, kindness and care

We can revive the female system.

“ The Sorting is a very important ceremony because while you are here, your house will be something like your family within Hogwarts…I hope each of you will be a credit to whichever house becomes yours.” (Professor McGonagall, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone)

 

This quote from the first book of the Harry Potter Series introduces the idea of displacement within the main character Harry Potter. As the Professor states in the quote, while the students attend the school Hogwarts, they will be placed into their “houses”. She states that these houses will be like their family over the next couple of years. This is important because the main character Harry, has never truly been apart of a loving family. He was orphaned as a child, and has been living with his Aunt and Uncle. Throughout his years of growing up, he was treated badly and was viewed upon them as being a burden rather than being a part of their family. Throughout his time in Hogwarts, Harry becomes friends with many kids and creates his own family at school. His sense of displacement comes in when it is time to go home for the holidays. While the other students are eager to go home to their families, Harry hates going back to his Aunt and Uncle. To him, his real home is at Hogwarts and feels as if he doesn’t belong with his Aunt and Uncle.

1. On page 22, Aciman talks about some psychological effects of displacement like the need for things to remain the same or to rescue things. How has displacement affected you?
2. In page 30, the author mentions how people like to compare but don’t necessarily like the things we compare. Why can’t he/we feel without comparing? Why can’t he/we appreciate what we have?
3. In page 34, the author says that he left part of himself in the old Straus Park. Do you have memories and feelings attached to a place?

1. Aciman placed several rhetorical questions in the beginning of the text. What purpose do you think these sentences serve?  
2. On page 21, he emphasized what it meant to be an “exile.” Was there any moment in your life where you felt like an exile? 
3. Which part stood out to you the most? Is there a reason this caught your attention? Did you relate to it?

 

1 – Why do some see change as bad when in some cases, it is what has brought us closer?

2 – What does Aciman mean by exile?

3 – Why do those that complain about change find it hard to accept that they themselves have created change?

1. Aciman claims that it is important for exiles like himself to “bridge the things here to things there” and to “rewrite the present so as not to write off the past”. How did Straus Park help him accomplish those “impulses”?

1. On page 22, Aciman states, “An exile reads change the way he reads time, memory, self, love, fear, beauty: in the key of loss.” What might Aciman have wanted to portray about exiles and why?

1. After Aciman realized Straus Park had been renovated and not demolished he considers New York to be a shadow city of itself. Do you feel that his feeling of displacement impedes him from ever settling into a place he would be able to call home? Why?