Blog #4 Topic #2

A conceit is an elaborate metaphor in writing or speech. While a metaphor is a comparison between two things, a conceit is an extended version of this and makes a comparison between two things are that extremely dissimilar. An example of a conceit, as many people say, is Diving into the Wreck, a poem by Adrienne Rich. This poem is about the speaker, a diver, who is looking for the wreck of a ship at the bottom of the ocean. It talks about the trip down the ladder, the feeling of entering into the big sea of water, and then arriving at the ship wreck. The imagery of this poem is laid out nice and clear for readers. But even though it’s easy to picture everything in the poem, it has many different interpretations, and that’s one reason why this poem is a conceit.

One way to interpret Diving into the Wreck is that it is an extended metaphor for Adrienne Rich’s love affair that has ended. In 1953, Rich married Alfred H. Conrad, a Harvard University economist. On poet.org, it is said that after publishing the poetry book The Diamond Cutters, fellow poet Randall Jarrell wrote that Rich gives off the feeling of a “princess in a fairy tale”. This feeling did not last long, however. As Rich approached her 30s, her life and poetry both slowly started to go through a change. In the 1960s, Rich wrote many poems and placed them into collections like Leaflets and Snapshots of a Daughter-in-Law. These works do not give off the image of a fairy tale princess anymore. Instead, the content of the poems are about racism and women’s role in society. The content isn't the only thing that changed; the style also went from metric patterns to free verse. And in 1970, Rich divorced her husband who later committed suicide. Diving into the Wreck was written in 1973.

I think this poem is a metaphor of the changes she went through that led to her failed love affair. In the sixth stanza of the poem, Rich writes, “I came to explore the wreck…/ I came to see the damage that was done/ and the treasures that prevail”. This can draw back to what made Rich change her style of writing. She explored the world and found out about just how bad it is. She was introduced to racism and realized how much women were really worth. She was exploring the wreck that the real world is. In a few stanzas before, she writes, “First the air is blue and then/ it is bluer and then green and then/ black and I am blacking out” (4). This can be a metaphor of her love affair that has ended because of the similar sufferings of losing a lover and losing your breath. It is a complex comparison between her emotional state and the physical state of diving. 

Blog 4

            In “Diving into the Wreck” by Adrienne Rich, she talks about an adventure. Looking at the text, there is nothing special about this poem. But the poem is an extended metaphor for her life. A life that she learned thought reading, then decided to experience it herself. The time was 1973, at middle of the feminist right movement. The life was not just a metaphor for her, but all women; the life where they share the same right as man. “First having read the book of myths” the first line use the word ‘myths’ to show that to have equal right was a fantasy in the old days; it is too good to be true. Then there comes the movement. Rich felt it is she chance so she get herself ready like the diver before the dive. According to her biography, she left her husband three years before this poem. Therefore she was the only one in the dive. Also, it shows she was walking into her new life alone. “First the air is blue and then it is bluer and then green and then black…” As she dives in deeper into the new life, her expectation changed as she describes the change in color. Living the life she wanted is difficult, unlike those who were there before. So she tries to remember what came here for. She was here to for a new life, not another story or myths. Therefore, she was blending in with the wreck.

            This is woman telling the society about her experience feminism, a woman who has a fantasy about a free world. But as she dives into it nothing has change.  “The drowned face always staring toward the sun” the direction of the sun is where Rich start the dive, we can understand it as the life she left behind, a life where man still in charge. This shows that even some people had set feet into this free world, but it can’t change the reality it is still a male dominant world. Rich knows this also, so she writes herself as a mermaid with no sex or both “I am she: I am he”. This way, she will have a better point of view. But she just can’t get rid of her identity as a woman. That’s why she wrote “our names do not appear” at the end to show that no matter how hard they try, their identity will still determent their place in the society. 

Post 4 option 4

When reading both “Women hollering Creek” and “House on Mango St”, by Sandra Cisneros I was able to easily connect some of the narratives within both stories to my own personal experience as a first generation Latina female. Growing up in a diverse city such as Los Angeles, I observed many of the different perspectives and living situations amongst other Latinos residing in the area. Many Latin American cultures enforce the idea that men should assert themselves as head of the household while maintaining stern patriarchal traditions. More often than not, women are forced to stay within their homes caring for children, tending to the needs of their husbands, or simply killing time as a result of not feeling that they are free to seek a life outside of their wifely duties.

Sandra Cisneros touches on many important aspects such the discovery of sexuality within young women, immigration, gender roles, and impoverished neighborhoods. Most of these topics coming from “House on Mango St”, portray women as subservient and helpless. For example in, “House on Mango St”, Sally is portrayed as a self centered female who only aspires to obtain the attention of men. Sally, of course, does this in order to escape the abusive relationship between she and her father. Ultimately, she is physically abused by all the men in her life, but settles for what little joy she has knowing it could be worse.

Similar to this situation, within “Women Hollering Creek”, Cleófilas is depicted as a woman who is trapped within the her unsentimental and abusive relationship. The manner in which both Sally and Cleófilas try to cope the toxic reality within their relationship is by avoiding the problem and pretending as if being abused is a correct way to be loved. Sandra Cisneros emphasizes this problem by constantly portraying her male characters as “macho” since they follow the outdated and abusive norms men are assumed to obtaining.

Transferring these narratives back to my own experiences, I can say that many immigrant women do in fact fall victim to such a harsh realities. As a daughter of a social worker, I have witnessed many women who suffer from similar occurrences as they do not feel that they can ever obtain the support to remove themselves from such toxic situations. Many women are too scared to seek help for countless reasons such as fearing deportation, lacking financial support, being unable to speak the English language, or are simply too afraid to defy their husbands. Sandra Cisnero, therefore, does not stereotype the immigrant experience within Hispanic women, on the contrary, she is simply highlighting the difficulties that keep so many women oppressed. I definitely think the reason why she also dramatises the situations within the character’s lives, relates back the fact that most women are not speaking out about the relationships many of them are found in. Cisneros's, therefore, asserts herself within a position where she can raise awareness over the issues that are present in Hispanic communities.

Blog 4 prompt 1

Diane di Prima’s Revolutionary Letters have correlations to Allen Ginsberg’s Howl, in that the themes of anarchy and Revolution are consistent throughout both pieces. The authors perceptions of these topics and the way they convey their ideas are distinct from one another, yet they’re both trying to insinuate and instigate similar responses from their readers. Di Prima’s articles utilize satire to create a list of completely ridiculous tasks to initiate a Revolution, while Ginsberg utilizes outlandish/controversial statements to agitate his readers into action.  

Di Prima’s Revolutionary Letters, are a narrative on the role that government, culture, and society play on the shaping of our lives. She writes that we shouldn’t conform to the “norms” which they place on us and gives her alternative interpretation of how we should deal with these cultural, societal, and political norms. Concepts form her first Revolutionary Letter include defeating a “force (or government)” which is greater than us. She also basically writes that these systems of government or society determine the worth of an individual based upon what society evaluates them to be. Her Seventh Revolutionary Letter includes a list of ways in which she would recommend starting a revolution. “success will depend mostly on your own state of mind: meditate, pray, make love, be prepared at any time, to die” She’s saying that successful revolutions rise out of calmness, piousness, pleasure, and a knowledge of the life cycle. She is using satire to convey that no matter what one does, there will always be death in the background and that we should live life to the fullest as we never know when it will end. Her ninth revolutionary letter is comprised of an outlandish list of tasks which she “believes” will instigate a revolution. Revolutionary letter 19 is about conforming to cultural or societal norms and how we shouldn’t bend ourselves the slightest bit to fit into society. I believed that in these types of statements Di prima is trying to get a rise out of her readers with her unyielding words.

This kind of uncomfortable wording, which is meant to instigate a conversation about these concepts in the reader’s mind is also utilized throughout Ginsberg’s poem.

            Ginsberg’s Howl is a piece which uses disturbing yet intriguing wording to convey his thoughts on rebellion and activism. His poem’s wording allows his readers to grasp complex and even absurd imagery. This allusion to imagery is the tip of the iceberg of this piece as it utilizes collage like elements of ideas, people, and places to convey an eminent pessimism in the world. His descriptions of these places are never easy to swallow and often leave a bad taste in the reader’s mouth. By showing the worst and most uncomfortable parts of society he’s initiating a conversation with his readers about the scum of society and the darkness which lies in all of it’s corners. He often references a who, which I interpret to be society throughout his piece “who went out whoring through Colorado in myriad stolen night cars, N.C., secret hero of these poems, cocksman, and Adonis of Denver-joy to the memory of his innumerable lays of girls in empty lots and diner backyards…”  readers would likely feel that society has lost any sense of sanity while morality would be the last thing on anyone’s conscious as Ginsberg’s writing leaves the reader questioning all common thought. Many would likely believe the only way to fix these issues would be to erase them and start from scratch.  

            The last line of Ginsberg’s poem goes “in my dreams you walk dripping from a sea-journey on the highway across America in tears to the door of my cottage in the Western night” I believe that Ginsberg is trying to convey that societal norms and government in America will inevitably ruin anyone who tries to take a stand. In Di prima’s Revolutionary Letter she writes “be prepared at any time, to die” Which I interpreted as life is filled with uncertainty and one can never depend on the world to be predictable. Therefore, although the Revolutionary Letters and Howl hold similar resonances in thought. The overlaps don’t qualify Di prima’s work as a response to Ginsberg’s outlook on revolution in Howl.

Blog Post 4, Topic 4

   Maxine Hong Kingston’s “The Woman Warrior: Memoirs of a Girlhood Among Ghosts” (1976) settles in the idea of the struggles of an immigrant/first generation encounters. As a first generation myself with parents who are immigrant and are only Spanish- speaking it is has been nothing but attempts in assimilating to a Western culture that is far distinct from our own. Kingston’s portrayal of immigrants is told from a first person narrative, giving it more of an intimate feel. She gives us a deep insight on her reflection of herself as a child who had barely moved to the United States all the way from China. Her short anecdotes that are compiled encompass the main details that an immigrant experiences when they come to a new country for a better life.
   Kingston definitely utilizes figurative language to her advantage when expressing her stories as a child. The use of pathos makes the reader automatically sympathize with her autobiographical stance as an immigrant herself, telling the stories. One of the most eye opening parts that stood out in her telling of personal experiences was when she stated, “When she arrived at the drug store, she runs her words together ’Mymohtersestagimmesomecandy’ and finally asks for a sample of candy, which was freely given (Kingston). It is here that as a first generation, I sympathize with the most, given the fact that one of the greatest expectations that an immigrant struggles with is assimilating to a new language. Due to this language barrier there comes many issues such as discrimination and prejudice. It is an underlying issue that many people don’t bring light to unless they have first-handedly experienced an issue with their language barrier in this Western country.
   Even though Kingston’s experience being told from her childhood, we see how the issues she encountered as an immigrant, not much differs from today’s societal approach towards immigrant/ first generations. There are definitely more resources and awareness to the situation; however, it doesn’t banish it from existing. The fact that many readers can easily empathize with her take on her experience as an immigrant adapting to a new country is an eye opener. There have been many instances where my parents and I have felt discriminated within this Western culture we have chosen to surround ourselves in, majorly because of prejudice on our appearances and the language barriers that disconnects us with others. Learning English became vital, it transformed into a weapon since it has been engraved in many opinions that immigrants should at least acknowledge the idea that they need to know English in order to try to live here. That shouldn’t be the case, regardless of these present language barriers, one should never feel the need to fulfill a societal norm implemented on a minority group such as immigrants/ first generations in order to feel acceptance. Kingston does a great job on exemplifying that.
    If I were the author, I would have chosen to write about something very similar if not exactly. I would incorporate more interactional experiences with authoritative figures and the experiences of those around me. Approaching this text mostly has emphasized the idea of Kingston giving a critical view towards the discrimination and lack of attention in the minority group as well about these issues that are easily established, and chosen to be structuralized and accepted/ tolerated instead of broken and re structuralized.

Blog post 4 Topic 3

Many thematic parallels could easily be drawn between Maxine Hong Kingston’s The Woman Warrior: Memoirs of a Girlhood Among Ghosts and Sandra Cisneros’s Woman Hollering Creek and The House on Mango Street. Each story focuses on the thoughts and experiences of young immigrants, or the children there of, coming to terms with societies and situations which are very different from those presented to them in the cultures in which they were raised, and while it may seem easier to compare The Woman Warrior and The House on Mango Street due to both focusing primarily on the development of children placed in these situations, Woman Hollering Creek still contains the motif of isolation from one’s self as well the world around one self featured in the other two. Despite these similarities, though, the ways in which Kingston and Cisneros go about presenting these themes and motifs to their readers are relatively different from one another. Through their contrasting uses of tone and perspective within their respective narratives, these two authors manage to create worlds and characters that feel unrelated and culturally distinct from one another, despite still featuring similar subject matter.

In The Woman Warrior, a now grown narrator describes the trials and tribulations she faced when she was younger due to being the child of newly immigrated Chinese citizens in what is likely late 40s early 50s 20^th century North American society. The dialogue and tone the narrator uses within this story is all very direct and specific in its nature with specific emphasis being placed on the word “I”, as evidenced in part by the lines “I am making progress”, “I made motions”, “I could not understand I” (63,64).

In part due to the narrator’s greater focus on how the prejudices and hardships directed at Chinese citizens in American society affected her specifically, these lines create a more individualistic feel to the narrative, as if she wants us to know that this is specifically her life and what happened affected specifically her life alone. This something also enforced by the rather frank way she delivers the information within the story with line, “I hated the younger sister, the quiet one” being a prime example of this letting us know that she will not embellish her words, and will be concise and truthful as to what happened with her life (68). All of this is done with the purpose of giving us, the reader, a non-filtered look into an individual girls immigrant experience.

The tone and dialogue presented in The House on Mango Street, a story which also retells the childhood of someone whose parents recently immigrated to the States though in this case from Latin America rather than China, by contrast are in a way much more broad and general in their delivery of the setting and characters when compared to that of The Woman Warrior despite still being told in the first person.  Rather than emphasis being place on the word “I”, it is instead placed on the word “we” creating a much more familial and communal sense to narrative than that which is presented within Kingston’s narrative. “We didn’t always live on Mango Street”, “We had to leave fast”, “Then we didn’t need to worry”(79,83). The tone also presents a sort of detachment from the narrative as well with the lines “The monkey doesn’t there anymore”, and “If you give me five dollars I will be your friend forever", something which is said by “the little one” rather than the narrator, being prime examples of this as, despite the fact that they are both the introductory lines to new stories featuring the narrators life, neither statements focus directly on the narrator, yet are about her which creates a strange yet purposeful sort of disconnect between the her and the readers throughout the stories, a disconnect which implies there is something more to these narratives which the narrator wishes for us to figure out on our own. This disconnect is also present in Cisneros’s other story Woman Hollering Creek. Although the narrative is in third person rather than first, much of the same tone and diction from The House on Mango Street is still present within this narrative, something which is evidenced by lines such as, “Because Juan Pedro wants to get married right away, and “Well, did you notice the dress the mother was wearing”, two lines which similarly to those in The House on Mango Street are not directed towards the main character Cleófilas, yet still focus directly on elements within her life (74). The purpose of all of this in Cisneros’s writing is to give the reader a general idea of the immigrant experience while also leaving enough vagueness to the story and the characters that we are never quite sure of their true emotions letting us instead interpret what they are for ourselves, something which is likely meant to represent the gap between different cultures and the individuals within them.

Blog #4 Topic #1

“Howl” by Allen Ginsberg depicts a society of rebellion during the 1950’s in the style of the “beat generation.” The “Revolutionary Letters” by Diane DiPrima are almost notes of how one goes about starting and partaking in a revolution. To say that these letters could be a response to Ginsberg’s “Howl” would be accurate because of the processes DiPrima provides are seen in “Howl.” The kind of response which DiPrima requires is that for those who don’t have anything they may use their voices and own self to obtain anything which they desire. In Ginsberg’s poem, they do just that though we never get a clear picture what it is they strive for.

            In “Howl I” Ginsberg paints a visual of the country how so many people who seem to be in a depressive state. In one line “who ate fire in paint hotels or drank turpentine…with dreams, with drugs, with walking nightmares, alcohol and cock and endless balls,” a vulgar statement but, what Ginsberg shows is how the people are reacting to the world. In the time of World War II and an era of capitalism made everyone edgy and fearful, thus distrust would arise in the nation. Later Ginsberg writes what appears to be people being arrested for protesting in a subway, “distributed Supercommunist pamphlets,” and “shrieked with delight in policecars for committing no crime.” These acts of rebellion could be what DiPrima tries to establish in her poem “Revolutionary Letters,” in all these acts that Ginsberg tells not once does it mention any murder or such. In “Revolutionary Letter #7” DiPrima states that carrying a weapon like a gun or knife is not a good idea, as “all swords are two-edged, can be used against you.”  The letter inputs more information for those trying to bring light to any injustice in a manner that won’t cost your life or wellbeing.

            As for the response DiPrima’s poems are a manual for rebellion, but leaves a lasting thought in “Revolutionary Letter #19.” The thought of getting what you ask for thus DiPrima states to ask for everything. This is a bit vague but deep down makes a lot of sense, why just stop at getting say a few rights, why not get complete equality. In Ginsberg’s “Howl” there no dialogue and any sort of demanding requests are metaphorically speaking. In some cases, Ginsberg calls them crazy in a sense, in one line “who demanded sanity trials accusing the radio of hypnotism” which at first glance is another way of saying crazy. However, during the 1950’s with the war going on many people were paranoid that the government and such were trying to get complete control of the nation. This could be a way for the rebels to ask, like DiPrima advocates, for all the answers from the government.

            The two poems play off each other, in that the “Revolutionary Letters” take what was happening during the riots of “Howl” and put into an instruction guide. The ideas of both are similar, DiPrima just goes the extra mile in refining the idea of revolution and inserts more grounds and precautions.