Category Archives: Uncategorized

1. I think the key point to identifying the two main characters’ races and the issue surrounding it is in their 4th encounter in which Twyla and Roberta got into a heated argument about the busing. The issue that seems to divide them is the symbol of riding the bus. Drawing on Rosa Parks’s bus boycott conflict, with Roberta being against the busing implementation and Twyla supporting it, I think it’s safe to say that Roberta is white while Twyla is black. This is probably because, in Roberta’s defense, she doesn’t want her [white] kid to be mixed in with [black] kids.
2. As a Filipino immigrant who came into the United States roughly 3 years ago, I was really anxious about transferring schools because I wasn’t really fluent in speaking English, even though the Philippines has already been Americanized. First days of classes were really hard on me because I was always anxious about speaking with a pretty thick Filipino accent. I also didn’t know about the ins and outs of the US college curriculum because I came to find out that it is very different from what I had back home. Fortunately, I got around to making some friends to make the transition a little bit easier, especially in Baruch where there is student club about Filipino culture and is comprised of Filipinos. There’s only a handful of them who can still speak the Filipino language, Tagalog, but I can’t complain. Adapting in a new environment is a lot easier when you have friends of the same feather.

Choose a moment in “Recitatif” in which you see the issue of race enter into Twyla and Roberta’s story.  Describe the moment, and explain what you think seems to be going on.  What issues seem to divide the two characters?  Can you identify their racial identities? How?

1. Throughout the story I had to do a lot of re-reading in certain paragraphs to try and see which girl was of what race. But referring back to our zoom call and speaking about this quote,”I looked up it seemed for miles. She was big. Bigger than any man and on her chest was the biggest cross I’d ever seen. I swear it was six inches long each way. And in the crook of her arm was the biggest Bible ever made.” I thought that Roberta’s mother was white seeing as how Twyla described her mother in contrast and how different they were , and that her mother was actually terminally ill mental or physically. Just the way Twyla described Roberta’s in a passive way in my perspective seemed jealous and envious.

Toni Morrison’s story explores the challenges of navigating racial/cultural/and socio-economic differences in our personal relationships.  Reflect upon an experience in your own life when you have had to navigate differences of this sort.   Describe the experience. What issues or complications arose?  How were they resolved?

2. Well growing up both my parents lived in Queens and grew up in New York after coming from Honduras and Ecuador. Once I was 5 , we moved to Miami. The place everyone wants to travel to. It’s honestly like South America with pockets other races and nationalities. It was really hard growing up there, mostly because were I grew up there were a lot of affluent white hispanic and European people. We lived in an affluent neighborhood the people would honestly only dream of , but as much of a good job my dad had and the great education and opportunities we had. My family was always seen as dark and inferior and less than. I never spoke Spanish growing up once we moved to Miami , essentially the one place that Spanish is like a first language, I was just so upset at how I felt less than that I just rejected my culture in any way possible. But the one interesting thing about living in Miami was even though I felt out of place not speaking enough Spanish, or being cuban , or being to dark , white people were usually a minority which was very interesting to experience. Especially because growing up most of my friends were Brazilian referring back to me rejecting my culture I didn’t really want to be friends with other girls my skin color because I thought it would be bad and I would get bothered more in school. But as I got older and went to college in Philadelphia I realized like I do love my skin and my culture and Miami wasn’t all the bad just the people I was around who made me feel inferior.

 1. On page 1177 when  Roberta’s mother visited her and brought different kinds of foods including “chicken legs and ham sandwiches”. Roberta drank the milk and left the food sitting there on the table and Twyla says “ The wrong food is always with the wrong people”. I think Twyla is saying that she should be eating that food instead of Roberta because she is a picky eater and doesn’t appreciate the food that is given to her. As a reader, I can see from the food that is mentioned and what Twyla said , that there is a race issue. I think “ chicken legs and ham sandwiches” is considered to be African American foods or “soul food” and the fact that Twyla said that “The wrong food is always with the wrong people” makes it more obvious that Twyla is the black girl and Robert is the white girl.

2. Being an immigrant and not speaking a single word in English was the hardest part of making relationships when I first arrived in NYC around 2010.  I was put in a middle school with students from different backgrounds and most of them were Latinos. Even though they didn’t speak English, they had their own language to communicate with. For me it was difficult because I had no other way to communicate unless I learned the English language. There was times where i end up fighting with some of those students, not because i started the fight or i wanted to fight, it was because there was language barrier and race difference between us and if i talked in my language, they would think that I’m talking about them and if they talked in their native language, many times i thought they were talking  bad about me. Soon after I became an English language speaker, I learned that I live in a society that is completely different from the society I was born and raised in, and the only way to adapt to this new society is to learn to act like i belong to this society. What I noticed as an immigrant living in New York and English is not my native language is that people underestimate you when speaking English with an accent. Because of that, I’m able to speak English fluently without an accent and it only made me more confident when speaking to others.

1. Choose a moment in “Recitatif” in which you see the issue of race enter into Twyla and Roberta’s story.  Describe the moment, and explain what you think seems to be going on.  What issues seem to divide the two characters?  Can you identify their racial identities? How?

• Throughout the story it is hard to depict which character is black and which is white. This was the purpose of the story. Toni Morrison purposely did not make it obvious which character is what race. She wanted their differences to be illuminated by their experiences. When reading the story, I kept going back and forth trying to figure out if Twyla or Roberta was black or white. In some parts of the story I felt that Roberta was black. For example when the two girls encountered each other at the Howard Johnson’s, Roberta had told her that she was going to see Jimi Hendrix, who is a black musician. The two men rolled their eyes at her for not knowing who he was and Roberta tried to explain who he was to Twyla but said “Hendrix. Jimi Hendrix, asshole. He’s only the biggest – Oh wow. Forget it.” Since Roberta was going to see a black musician, I assumed she was black. Twyla also described Roberta’s hair at the restaurant. She said that “Her own hair was so big and wild I could hardly see her face.” With this description, I assumed that Roberta had her hair in an afro which is a common hair style for blacks. However when I thought about when I read the part of the story where they meet at the store, Twyla said “…how she got from Jimi Hendrix to Annandale, a neighborhood full of doctors and IBM executives. Easy, I thought. Everything is so easy for them. They think they own the world.” Here I thought maybe Twyla is actually black because she was envious of Roberta who was living in a rich neighborhood. She felt that things come easy to those who are white. A part of the story where race comes as an issue was actually in the beginning of the story when the girls first get introduced to each other. When the Bozo introduced them to each other, Twyla said “My mother won’t like you putting me in here.” She was saying her mother would be mad about her child being put in a room with someone of a different race. She knew life during that time was whites and blacks did not associate with each other, which is why she knew her mother would get mad about having her child associate with a girl of another race. The issue of racial differences as a child did not impact them, however as they grew older race came into play. As a child they got along and did not care that one was black and the other was white. They still stayed together in the orphanage. However, as they got older, race became a clear difference because due to their race they began to live different lives. One living in Annandale and the other living in Newburg and one having their child ride the bus to go to school and the other protesting against it.

2. Toni Morrison’s story explores the challenges of navigating racial/cultural/and socio-economic differences in our personal relationships.  Reflect upon an experience in your own life when you have had to navigate differences of this sort.   Describe the experience. What issues or complications arose?  How were they resolved?

• Being Bengali but born in America, I notice differences within myself. The way I act at home is different from how I act when I am outside surrounded by people of different cultures and races. When I am home, I talk in Bengali to my parents and eat bengali food. However, when I am outside, I talk in English and adapt to the American culture. When I leave my house, my mother looks at the other I wear and always says that I am becoming too American. She says that just because I was born here does not mean I am American. Whenever she brings this up, I always tell her that I am American but I am also Bengali. I tell her that I was born and raised in a country that is very different from where she grew up. I tell her that I appreciate my Bengali culture but I cannot just forget my American side. I grew up in America where kids only spoke English, wore jeans, shorts, and tanktops, and hung out with their friends at the movies, parks, museums, and restaurants. Even though this issue is not resolved between my mother and I, it is not an issue with me internally because I know that I am both. I am Bengali-American. 

1. There are other moments that could be pointed out but I feel like the one that most clearly relates to race has to be the encounter in front of the school about busing. Twyla son’s is going to a school where they’re allowing buses with different race kids in the same bus. Roberta was protesting against this racial integration when Twyla drove up and confronted her. As the confrontation became heated Roberta accused Twyla of being the girl that hit Maggie, also the fact that Maggie was black. She’s trying to showcase the fact that Twyla was abusive towards your own people and the fact that she doesn’t have a right to be for integration if she doesn’t like her own people. From this confrontation you could tell that Roberta is white and Twyla is black. Although it initially seems like the races will be the thing that divides them, after Twyla makes a sign that states “IS YOUR MOTHER WELL?” The entire confrontation ends. This goes to show that it’s very easy to hate someone or despise their way of life when you don’t know who they are. When you are able to disassociate yourself from a certain person or race, you don’t have to share the burden of guilt when attacking them. But since Twyla and Roberta have known each other since they were child, it’s hard for Roberta to create distance between them. She probably felt guilty that she was showcasing her hate towards someone who is just asking how her mother is, it’s humanized Twyla in her eyes instead of being just another black person.
2. I feel like if you’re an immigrant especially at a young age to a completely modern country, you live two different lives inside and outside of your house. The cultures are so different that one way or another you have to be a version of yourself that you aren’t to reside within it. Especially since I’m from a small isolated country like Bangladesh that’s very conservative and religious, you have to act according to the strictures of society or potentially face being ousted from it all together. When your child your mind isn’t really formed about anything so when you live and was raised in a country like America with its liberal values and more open-minded thinking, but your parents are born and raised in Bangladesh where that is not the case, you become completely different people compared to your parents. You just can’t fathom the manner in which they think and it’s no fault of their own, those are the things that they valued and were taught to value. Whether those things hold racial connotations or any other ancient from thinking, you begin to feel really disconnected from them. In regards to race, the people in my country haven’t interacted with anyone that’s not Bangladeshi so they think they know something about someone when it is actually just a racist stereotype. Like when I was in Bangladesh recently, there was a guy off the street that asked me if black people were more aggressive and was I wary of them? When I first heard it I didn’t know what to say because I just couldn’t understand where he was coming from but then I just decided to say that they’re just people like us. I couldn’t be upset at them for being ignorant, for not knowing. That was a real question that they had and as a person that has interacted with black people, I was an ambassador for them for this person. And so the best things that we could do in regards to dealing with racial or cultural issues if you just understand everyone that’s around us. There’s no way to move forward with a closed mind. Life gets very lonely and painful if we choose to close ourselves off to anybody that doesn’t look like us or behave like us. Especially since we’re so privileged to be in a city that’s so diverse, the best thing that we could do is to embrace our surroundings and do our best not to contribute to the hate that would exist in this world.

1.   The moment where race came into the picture for me was early in the story in the first page. It was the instant where Twyla tells us that her mother told her “they never washed their hair and they smelled funny” At this moment, I got a sketchy feel of who was who because of this is a stereotype placed on white people. I also think that this was an example of breaking racial codes. Toni Morrison was trying to expose these different stereotypes.
2.  I have not really had close personal relationship with people of other races, so I do not have personal experience when it comes to differences. However, I have relationships with people of my race, who have different cultures and it has honestly been amazing and educative. Rather than navigating differences, I feel like genuinely being interested in learning people’s culture is a better way to go, and every type of complication will be avoided.

1. I think a moment where I saw an issue of race is when they met at the supermarket (page 1180). I think that their status gives me an idea of which of the girls is which. Twyla tells that she is married with one kid and Roberta is married with widower and has his four kids, she didn’t have any, and also she had a driver. I think that this status made me think that Twyla might be a black girl and Robert a white girl.
   
2. When I first came to New York, before I got to my first semester in college, my mom thought it would be better for me if I work somewhere to practice my English and meet new people. I remember feeling so anxious that I wouldn’t make any friends there because everybody was from here and I had just come from Greece. The first weeks were little hard for me cause I couldn’t speak the language so well, they had different interest than me, for instance , in Greece with friends you usually would go for a 2 hour coffee, drink or even food, but here they wanted to go bowling or to go watch a movie, but at the end it was fun and we still go out from times to times.

1. On page 1184, Twyla and Roberta have a quarrel about Maggie. It is noticeable weird to see that Roberta insists that Maggie is kicked down by Twyla and that Maggie is a black lady which later turn out to be a lie. Why does Roberta do this? Why does she intendedly make up the race of Maggie? Why does she impute Twyla as the offender who kicks down Maggie? I think she just transfer the conflict between two races to two individuals. Therefore, I perceive that Twyla is a white and Roberta is a black. Roberta lines herself with poor Maggie who she thinks is a black. Moreover, Maggie plays a role of victim here and Roberta might want to use this as an example to show that whites hurt blacks.
2. I participated in a program called conversational partners program at Baruch last semester where I was matched to an upper-middle class white girl for conversational partners. Basically, we were supposed to meet twice a month and have an hour-long conversation. Our races are different. We come from different cultural background with different socio-economic status. So, it’s unavoidably for us to have some arguments relating to life attitudes, behaviors, politics and even food options. But once we had different opinions, we would always listen to the ideas from another one. Though we did not fully agree with each other even after hearing what other people says, we still made the question open to discuss in our next meeting. She invited me to her thanksgiving party at her home in financial district. Although we didn’t meet this semester because of the pandemic and might also because of the current US-China relationship (I don’t mind it, but she might mind that), I guess we can still get in touch later and she said she want to come to Chengdu for traveling in the future. And if she comes, I’ll be very pleased to be a tour guide haha.

In my opinion, Lu Xun, “In the Wineshop” is indeed a great work. The author was able to convey a complex idea without the active participation of the narrator but through the use of a supporting character. “In the Wineshop”, depicts a scholar’s revisit of his hometown, only to find himself a stranger to the place. The only thing that remains familiar to him is an old wine house where he chanced upon a former colleague, Wei-fu. Despite the story being told through a first-person narrator, the majority of the plot involves Wei-fu who recounts his story to the narrator. Through Wei-fu’s perspective, we are given a glimpse into his past with the narrator. His accounts of the past involve pulling the beards off religious figures with the narrator and their declaration for a revolution. Supported by Wei-fu’s two tales, we’re able to complete the puzzle and restore the entire story.

Both Wei-fu and the narrator are defectors of traditional Confucius teachings, they’ve shown defiance at an early age. As they grew, Wei-fu had given up on his dreams while the narrator continues to fulfill his. The narrator’s revisit was due to him being weary from trying to fulfill his dreams. He meets Wei-fu, a former colleague that shared the same dream, only to find him dispirited and lacking the ambition of the past. The Wei-fu that he once has known is gone and became the person that they once despised the most. Wei-fu’s change and submission to tradition did not dispirit the narrator but instead encouraged him to pursue his dreams for a revolution. Lu Xun, “In the Wineshop” is a great work because the author was able to cleverly hide a complex idea in a seamlessly flows of tales and flashbacks. “In the Wineshop” speaks of dreams versus reality and dreams if left unfulfilled.

“This Way for the Gas, Ladies and Gentlemen” is the story that really strikes me. The author uses first person point of view to record what he witnesses at the Auschwitz concentration camp as a non-Jew prisoner. Although the author applies some fictional exaggeration in depicting the harsh environment of the concentration camp, I am still able to feel the thrills and pain prisoners had to endure.

Personally speaking, I feel quite distant from WWII era. Although I am familiar with the historical background and development of the war, I have never invested much of emotion into it until I read this work. It was intense. The explicit, raw descriptions of inhuman conditions those prisoners find themselves in give me chills. I cannot fathom what it was like to be there. The cruelty and lifelessness are beyond what I can imagine in my mind. It makes me realize that I have been taking many things in my life for granted. Comparing to those Jewish who starved and died of inhaling gas, I am far more fortunate. Yet, I still find myself complain about my life often. Borowski has enlightened me to appreciate what I already have.

Another thought I have contemplated on regarding the text is how ridiculous we, human beings, are. It is fair to say most people will agree that the concentration camps during WWII are immoral and the war should not happen again. But what have we learned? Nothing. Wars between human did not stop. We got used to the hard-earned peace for a while and soon took everything for granted again. Why are we forget about the pain caused by the past traumas so easily? What will it take us to eventually learn the lesson? We may never find out.