Rankine on Rich

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Claudia Rankine (author of Citizen) recently wrote about the work of Adrienne Rich in the New Yorker:

http://www.newyorker.com/books/page-turner/adrienne-richs-poetic-transformations

An excerpt:

In answer to the question “Does poetry play a role in social change?,” Adrienne Rich once answered:

Yes, where poetry is liberative language, connecting the fragments within us, connecting us to others like and unlike ourselves, replenishing our desire. . . . In poetry words can say more than they mean and mean more than they say. In a time of frontal assaults both on language and on human solidarity, poetry can remind us of all we are in danger of losing—disturb us, embolden us out of resignation.

Yunior

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As soon as I noticed that this would be the last reading of the semester, I got really excited. “Drown” by Junot Diaz is one of my favorite books; Diaz always sets the tone of his books to depict his reality growing up, though it may not be his exact reality, it is the reality that many young adults faced and continue to face living in poverty or with separated parents (while being part of the minority class, living in poverty).

For the portion of the book chosen for the class, I think the importance of the title “Drown” plays a key role in the society in which Yunior lived, he puts an emphasis on discussing what his surroundings were like and his almost non existent relationship with his mother, and his undoubtable dislike for his own father. Everything about his experiences has lead him to not going to college and being a mediocre drug dealer, he states “… And they pause when they see me, recognizing the guy who sells them the shitty dope” (pg 1242). He has managed nothing during this time when Beto (his close friend from high school was away), and going back to the swimming pool is only a reminder of what a failure he is, the fact that he hasn’t even been able to be good at drug dealing is a terrible reminder of this.  In addition, when his mom brings up the fact that his friend has come looking for him, he just dismisses her, although he eventually does go looking for him (without really looking, just hoping that Beto may go back to some of there old hangout spots).

The tone of the reading is one of sadness, a repetitive story that never ends, going to the mall once a month with his mother, her constant struggle with the idea of getting back with Yunior’s father, all leads no where. Unfortunately his lack of ambition has brought him down a lane of memories that he knows all to well, he recognized that he was going no where even before his friend left for college, he stated “I wasn’t like him. I had another year to go in high school, no promises anywhere else.” (Pg 1242). He knew that his family did not have the money to send him to school, and knew that he would probably never leave his mother’s side, even at that point. Having knowledge of the rest of the book, he knows this because his father has always been unfaithful to his mother. Unfortunately that is a story known all to well in minority class households.

“Drown” – Junot Diaz

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“Drown” has something of a dual narrative. On it’s surface, it describes the end of a friendship over matters of sexual experimentation; underneath it’s surface, it documents the narrators uncertainty and anxiety over his own future, only further exacerbated by his friend Beto’s advances and the confusion it causes him.

In the first two parts of the story, the narrator explains his reluctance to talk to Beto by simply stating that he’s become a “pato”, and therefore is no longer worthy of his association. Unlike simple-minded bigotry (which tends to incite more anger), the narrator simply states it as a matter-of-fact, foreshadowing that he knows this because of first-hand experience. Despite his nonchalant attitude, we immediately go on to see how close he and Beto were: “we were raging then, crazy the way we stole, broke windows, the way we pissed on people’s steps and then challenged them to come out and stop us”. This close friendship is only further brought to prominence by the narrator’s home life, with his quiet, paranoid, and long-suffering mother. The description of their relationship evokes feelings of isolation; along with his absentee father, the implication is that Beto and his mother are the two closest people to the narrator. But in losing Beto to his own discomfort and his mother’s emotional availability to his father’s infidelity, the narrator doesn’t quite have anyone left.

This is only made more miserable when we take into account the narrator’s prospects for the future (or lack-there-of). He is accosted by a military recruiter, who tries to entice him into joining by reminded him of all the things he lacks, and will likely never have (in his words, “a house, a car, a gun and a wife”). And later in the story, towards the end, the narrator mentions a teacher at his highschool very frankly saying that he doesn’t believe most of his students will make anything of themselves; the narrator wholly applies this to himself, believing that he has no prospects in life.

His lack of emotional support, coupled with his bleak future, casts an extremely bleak overcast over the entire story. The narrator is speaking to us, and yet, he could be anyone with a similar set of circumstances. Knowing that the narrators situation is not especially unique is what brings both of these components home.

Leila’s Willpower

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In Nawal El-Saddawi’s short story, “In Camera”, we see a depiction of the social system in the Arabic countries and how it oppresses and discriminates women when they defy the system. In traditional Arab society, women were treated unequally, especially in the political world. Leila, the protagonist is on trial for challenging the system by calling God, or the king “stupid”. Because of this remark, she was arrested, imprisoned, tortured, and raped. Throughout the story, we see the pain and suffering she endured in prison and just how much it traumatized her as she sits in the courtroom.

Furthermore, we can see that in this society, women were not treated as humans, but they were treated as animals. The quotation: “For the first time she understood that the human body differed from that of an animal in one important way – sitting. No animal could sit like the way she could, if it did, what would it do with its four legs?” (1108). shows the degradation of women by comparing women to animals and how the one important difference between them is the way they sit and not how they are treated. El Saddawi wanted to compare Leila to an animal to show how undervalued she was as a human.

The conversation between the rapist and Leila also showed that women’s role in society were insignificant and how women were undervalued. One of the rapists lying on top of her said: “This is the way we torture you women – by depriving you of the most valuable thing you possess” (1113). Despite the continuously painful suffering, she managed to talk back and say, “You fool! The most valuable thing I possess in not between my legs, you’re all stupid. And the most stupid among you is the one who leads you” (1113). Leila might have been broken physically, but she was not broken mentally. Her willpower gave her strength and her faith and desire to fight for their freedom of self-expression and end oppression, discrimination, and inequality.

The Women’s Swimming Pool

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As i was reading the short story “The Women’s Swimming Pool” by Hanan Al-Shaykh, I found it very interesting how Al-Shaykh used this “swimming pool” in a very symbolic matter. In the islamic religion women aren’t seen or treated equally to men. This led me to wonder has the islamic religion led this society to become blind to the reality of it all? This swimming pool is sort of like the light at the end of the tunnel, it meant more than just a plain old swimming pool. The freedom that women have always wanted and deserved, the equality that should have been dealt to them, the pride of being able to say we are as equal as men was waiting for them at this swimming pool. They ended up going through everything and everyone in order to locate this swimming pool that Sumayya had told her about. This reminded me of all the hard work and fighting that women had to do in our countries history in order to gain equality. Same way she had to go through a long journey to find the swimming pool so did women in the United States.

“And now here were the two of us standing at the door of the swimming pool, and she, having heard the call to prayers, had prostrated herself in prayer. She was destroying what lay in my bag, blocking the road between me and the sea.” These sentences from the text made me think about religion and rights. The Islamic religion has 5 calls to prayer a day, which meant you would have to pray that much times a day at necessary times. She didn’t know whether to join the grandmother in prayer or to go keep chasing after this swimming pool. In this situation i could tell that religion has played a big role in the fight of equality for women. Society has portrayed this concept of inequality through religion, the grandma stopped this journey to achieve the equality of women in order to pray and follow her religion. This made me wonder if maybe religion is what was pushing women back from achieving their rights. If women wouldn’t let religion or other obstacles stop them from achieving their equality, it would be achieved in all parts of the world, in all cultures and in all religions.

The Female Mind

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Upon reading “In Camera” by Nawal El Saadawi, I found it fascinating to read about Leila’s court case from the perspective of her subconscious. It was difficult to comprehend at first, but once I started reading more critically I found that it is a sad, yet inspiring story. For her to have left so many men perplexed by one simple statement was astonishing, she stated : “You fool! The most valuable thing I possess is not between my legs” (pg 1113). I don’t think she understood how vulnerable she left the men were rapping her, and also because she didn’t intend to call God stupid, but that is how the men took. She alone condemned  a judge without even knowing it. She was so focused on finding her mother, which is also very strange, although a mother is  very important figure in one’s life. She doesn’t state why it was important for her to find her mother in the mix of people, though she constantly brings it up.

Leila’s father was also speaking through his subconscious and he understood the implications of having clapped when the judge mentioned that his daughter had called God stupid, but he also knew that once those words were uttered there was no taking them back. He knew, before the judge knew, that he would have to end the public trail and that his daughter would continue to be tortured. Though because of the culture in which they lived where according to Arab- Islamic code of honor, both his and his daughters death were preferable than to face dishonor.

Reading from someone’s subconscious is rather interesting, I was able to understand exactly what she and her father were going through as though I was the one living it. It made me feel as though I should take action against such an injustice, which is exactly what El Saadawi wants us to feel. His ability to draw me in so quickly and want to make a change for a character in a story is unlike any arthur I have ever read, this short story is definitely one I will remember.

 

Diving for one’s true self

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Upon reading up on Adrienne Rich and learning that she was a lesbian I came to the conclusion that Diving into the Wreck is a poem that tells the story of exploration and finding of one’s self through the use of symbolism. The poem talks about a diver who is searching the sea for a wreck and any potential treasure it may contain.                                                      The sea here represents the mind and the diver is diving into a sea of memories, the wreck possible representing a specific bad memory or experience. “First the air is blue and then it is bluer and then green and then black” as the diver delves deeper and deeper into the memories it may be harder to remember older memories or that these memories are dark and painful. However not all the memories are bad, “And now: it is easy to forget what I came for among so many who have always lived here” the diver here is reminiscing about the different people the diver has encountered and the events they have shared together.                                         “I came to see the damage that was done and the treasures that prevail” if the wreck does represents a bad memory/experience then the purpose of exploring this particular memory is to go through it, study it, and learn from it. By learning from it, the diver gains the treasure, the knowledge that might help if the diver were to go experience the situation once again.                                                                                                                                       With the knowledge that Rich was a lesbian and knowing that being gay in her time period was no easy thing lead me to think that the “book of myths” mentioned in the poem refers to one’s true self. “The thing I came for:the wreck and not the story of the wreck the thing itself and not the myth”the diver was here looking through the memories to find his true self who he buried deep in his mind and to salvage it and to bring it up back to the surface.

A Sea of Symbolism

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At first glance “Diving into the Wreck” by Adrienne Rich was a confusing poem. However, at a closer inspection and research about the author, I realized that this poem is filled with symbolism, such as the ocean, the wrecked ship and the book of myths. Many of the symbols can be linked with feminism and society.

If we decide to view the ocean as society, we can see the reason why Rich compared the wetsuit to “body armor.” Assuming the diver is a woman, she would need the armor to protect herself from society and its “pressure”. “First the air is blue and then / it is bluer and then green and then / black I am blacking out and yet / my mask is powerful it pumps my blood with power / the sea is another story.” The water getting darker and darker is the female diver getting deeper and deeper into societal pressures. Even with this “armor” it is still hard to adjust to the pressures surrounding her. That being said, she manages to keep consciousness because of her equipment, she does not give into society.

The drowned face on the wrecked ship at the bottom of the water is a symbol of other women who have “drowned” in the pressures of society, “whose drowned face sleeps with open eyes / whose breasts still bear the stress.” These are the women who have conformed to the ways that others want them to act and behave. They could not make their way back to the surface.

Lastly, at the beginning of the poem, there was a reference to a book of myths that the diver had read but no clues were given to what it meant. During the exploration of the wrecked ship, Rich wrote: “the wreck and not the story of the wreck / the thing itself and not the myth.” This event explained that the book of myths was a book about the shipwreck and thus about the women who drowned. It also explained why at the end of the poem after the diver resurfaced, checked in the book and found nothing: “a book of myths / in which / our names do not appear.” Her name, their names (whoever they are), did not appear on this book of drowned women because they were able to survive the pressure of the water.

Together not Better

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“Chike’s School Days” is a very short story and from the first time reading it, I did not get what is going on and what is the point of the story, there was no conflict nor climax, it is just a story. However, when reading it for the second time the story slowly sunk in. it is about a person who refused to continue following the norms of the society he was brought up in. Amos decided to change the things that he thought was wrong with the class culture in Africa, he took on the ways of the white men, and even though Amos came from the upper class, he chose to marry an Osu women of lower class, knowing that he will be shunned and looked down for doing so, he still did it because he thought it was the right thing to do. I would say Amos didn’t like the idea of a lower class and an upper class, he wanted everyone to be regarded as equal.

Taking on the ways of the white man to Amos, meant becoming more westernized and more accepting to others, as we see Amos married a woman from the lowest class. One would think that Amos would teach his children to be accepting towards others too, however that didn’t turn out that way. When Amos’s child Chike at four years old was offered a piece of yam from a neighbor, Chike responded with “We don’t eat Heathen food” (828). How does this happen, one goes to great lengths to be more accepting and even marries a woman of lower class, yet his child still found a way to exclude rather than include others? It is because accepting the ways of the white man meant accepting the religion of the white man too, and the conflict happened where the westerners only accepted  one god, and in Africa they worshipped many gods. Most of the time a cultural divide doesn’t happen straight forward, this division sneaks in even with people who really mean well, it is some sort of human nature to want to feel better than others by looking down on them, and it is something that we need to be vigilant about all the time. When you see a reason to exclude, take a moment, a step back and find a way to include.