Speak: Silencing Factors/Healing Factors

 American Born Chinese: Monkey King Contribution

          Jin Wang, the protagonist in the story, yearns to fit in with everyone else at his school. Although he is Chinese, he desperately wishes to be just like the white boys. To get the attention of a girl he likes, he goes so far as to get the same hairstyle as one of the popular boys in his class. In his search to be like everyone else, he ends up not only losing his best friend, but losing his own identity. It takes a visit from his cousin (who is actually the Monkey King) to set him straight.

          The monkey king story sets the stage for Jin’s story as their identity crisis seem to parallel.  The Monkey King wants to go to a party given by the gods but he is refused entrance because he is only a monkey. He argues that he “is a committed disciple of the arts of kung-fu…mastered the four major heavenly disciplines…” (14). The guard tells him that he hasn’t any shoes and since he is still only a monkey, he cannot enter. This makes the Monkey King furious!

          Upon returning to his mountain (Flower-Fruit Mountain) he orders all of his monkey subjects to wear shoes. He meditates and learns more powers, all of which gave him the ability to change his form in some way. He tried to be something other than what he truly was…a monkey. He became arrogant and unruly, which gained the attention of Tze-Yo-Tzuh, the creator of all things. Tze-Yo-Tzuh tried to convince the Monkey King that even with all that he had; he was still what he was created to be…a monkey. Still rebelling, the creator sentenced the Monkey King to be imprisoned under a mountain for 500 years.

          At the end of his imprisonment, he is released by a monk sent by Tze-Yo-Tzuh. The Monkey King let go of his former kung-fu power and agreed to serve the monk to the end. He was finally at peace with himself.

          The Monkey King convinced Jin to return to who was created to be…Jin Wang, an American born Chinese boy. “Now that I’ve revealed my true form…it is time to reveal your…Jin Wang” (213). They both learned that to become truly at peace you need only to be who were created to be…You! 

 Monster Flashbacks

     There are three flashback scenes I will attempt to analyze. The first scene is where Steve is with his friend, Tony, and they are at a park. The second scene is when Steve overhears a conversation between two women as they are discussing the robbery and subsequent murder at the drugstore. The third is at Steve's apartment where is watching a news telecast about the robbery and murder. I will argue that Steve is not the innocent person he makes himself out to be.

    Flashback 1: Steve and Tony are trying to hit a lamp post with a rock. Tony throws his rock first and misses. Steve teases him and attempts to do the same thing with his rock. He also misses, however, he does hit a woman who is standing with a "tough guy" who immediately spies the two boys and heads their way. Steve immediately hollers for Tony to run who starts move away. When the tough guy sees Tony move, he hits him. Steve backs away and the tough guy leaves with the woman. Tony reminded Steve that he was the one who threw the rock, but Steve replied, "I didn't say you threw it. I just said, 'Run.' You should've run" (36).

     We can see that at the age of twelve, Steve was already adept at the art of shoveling the blame. He didn't think he was guilty because he tried to tell Tony to run.  He decided to look out only for himself. He was ready to leave Tony to his fate.

Flashback 2: Steve is playing with his basketball when he overhears a conversation between two women discussing the robbery and murder. The next thing we know is that Steve is trying to disappear in the crowd and he has left his basketball in the gutter. That tells me he is feeling guilt over something about the incident at the drugstore. If he had nothing to do with it, why the panic over the women's conversation?

Flashback 3: Steve is watching a news program that is reporting about the robbery and murder. He seems to be in shock or scared because "[H]e is staring straight ahead, mouth open, in absolute shock..." (92). This tells us that he feels guilty over the incident otherwise, why would he care?

     These three flashback scenes show us that there is probable guilt that links Steve to have been complicit of the robbery which lead to the murder. This would have made him an accessory to the crime, although deserving of a lesser sentence.

 

The Hunger Games: Ethical Value

          The Hunger Games is a story that does its best to make you rethink your own set of morals and ethics. One of the goals of an author is to get the reader involved in the plot, linking, or relating to one or more of the characters. The ethical issues are not as black and white as one would hope. The protagonist, Katniss, puts on a tough façade, but that is because of all that is required of her, and for her own safety and the safety of her family, especially Prim, her younger sister.

          Katniss demonstrates kindness and compassion as she looks after the welfare of those younger or those who are unable to care for themselves. In a conversation with her closest friend, Gale, they both reach the same conclusion: they can never leave because of family obligations.

          “They’re not our kids…But they might as well be…Who would fill those mouths that are always asking for more” (14)?

          There are numerous instances when Katniss shows us that she does have a heart. She looks after Rue, a competitor in the arena; takes care of Peeta, her partner in the games, and provides a mercy-killing to her arch nemesis, Cato. Katniss struggles with the thought of killing; however, she knows it’s “kill or be killed.” Her own sense of morals dictates her actions, she strikes from a defensive stance rather than act as the aggressor. Her first real kill was the boy from District 1 after he let loose a spear that dove deeply into Rue.

          The ethical values of the Capitol are easier to disagree with; after all, they instituted this “game” as a punishment and deterrent from future uprisings.

          “The Treaty of Treason gave us the new laws to guarantee peace and, as our yearly reminder that the Dark Days must never be repeated, it gave us the Hunger Games” (27).

It was no wonder everyone held no love for the people who ran the Capitol or President Snow. Their moral compass went every which way, and it would always be in the best interest of the Capitol as evidenced in the rule-changing during the game (339).

          Is YA literature a place for young adults to find their moral compass? In his article, “Zygmunt Bauman, Postmodern Ethics, and Utopia as Process in Suzanne Collins’s The Hunger Games…,” Brian Jansen quotes author Carol Jones Collins as saying that YA fiction “help[s] the young reader determine and understand his or her own ideas about morality and can help that reader work through moral confusions” (22). I believe that the ethics found in The Hunger Games allows readers to evaluate their own morals and ethics. 

References

Collins, Suzanne. The Hunger Games. First ed., Scholastic Press, 2008.

Jansen, Brian. “Zygmunt Bauman, Postmodern Ethics, and Utopia As Process in Suzanne Collins's the Hunger Games: ``It's the First Gift That's Always the Hardest to Pay Back''.” Jeunesse, vol. 7, no. 1, 2015, pp. 18–41.

 Harry Potter: Suspending Disbelief Analysis

    Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone is just one of many the genre of fantasy that readers are "willing to suspend their disbelief" for the sake of the story itself. Allow me to elaborate further. How many of us like the thrill of scary movies, or of actually being scared when a ride at the amusement park? We are willing to subject ourselves to the unknown because we know that there is a reward in the thrill itself or entertainment (fun) to be experienced. When it comes to the fantastical, many of us have that tiny bit inside that still wonders...if only I could.

    At the onset of the book by J. K. Rawling, we are introduced to Harry's Aunt and Uncle, the Dursley's, and their spoiled rotten son, Dudley. They are mean to Harry and keep him from doing anything pleasant. When Harry receives mail from Hogwarts, Mr. Dursley keeps it from him. The letters keep coming, but Mr. Dursley moves the family from one outrageous place to another in the attempt to be rid of the letters. No matter where they go, the letters keep coming. Finally, when they are on a huge rock, in a shack in the middle of the ocean, Hagrid bursts through the door. He is the caretaker at Hogwarts and he arrived to personally give Harry his letter and a birthday cake (it was his 11th birthday). The scene begs the question, how did Hagrid get to the rock island, with the letter and a birthday cake? We soon discover from Hagrid that Harry is a wizard.  "'Harry -- yer a wizard'" (35), and so is Hagrid...sort of. 

    First of all, Harry's relatives treated him so awful that part of us wished for something to happen. We were willing to accept it when Hagrid gave Dudley a pig's tail because Dudley was so mean to Harry (41). So, why do we accept the implausible for realism? In her article, "The Magic of Harry Potter: Symbols and Heroes of Fantasy" Sharon Black recalls when her daughter, who was college-age, had picked up a copy of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, and remarked that the book " had reaffirmed her faith that despite its dark recesses, the world is good, and people can overcome their difficulties and find joy" (Black, 238). Rawling uses magic to help tell the story of "power and love" as seen in the characters of Voldemort and Harry.

    Readers of all ages are able to relate to characters and the plot, which gives the story a human touch. What mother wouldn't die to protect her child, no matter the means, as Harry's mother, Lily, did for her son? Dumbledore told Harry that is was the powerful magic of her sacrificial love that gave Harry is protection (Rawling, 218). We are willing to accept the improbability because we want to believe that there is a love that strong. 

    Amid criticism that the Harry Potter series is evil because of magic and witches, Black uses the argument of Bruno Bettleheim who states, "that any child familiar with fantasy understands that these stories 'speak to him in the language of symbols and not that of everyday reality'” (239). Children love these books because there are so many situations they can relate to and identify with, especially in regard to theme, such as, being the underdog, being an orphan, being bullied, being loved, and being understood.

Works Cited

Black, S. (n.d.). The magic of harry potter: Symbols and heroes of fantasy - children's literature in Education. SpringerLink. Retrieved July 6, 2022, from https://link.springer.com/article/10.1023/A:1025314919836 

Rowling, J. K. (2020). Harry Potter and the sorcerer's stone. Scholastic Inc

    

Adolescent Literature

 Holes: Stanley's Character Metamorphosis

     I read Holes by Louis Sachar for the first time June 27, 2022 while my family and I were driving back from a trip to California. I remember thinking that I had better get started on it because my class had started that week. From the first page I was hooked. Sachar manages to put a story together that, not only is entertaining, but easy to read without making you feel like your reading below your level. The main protagonist of the story is Stanley Yelnats IV who is beset with bad luck...or so he believes. He is sent to Camp Green Lake for a crime he did not commit, except that he learns Camp Green Lake is nothing but "dry, flat wasteland" (p. 11). While he is here, Stanley goes through a metamorphosis which takes him from an overweight, soft, dreamy boy and turns him into a fit, hardened, practical young man.

    The scene opens up with Stanley on a bus heading toward Camp Green Lake. Not knowing anything about the place, he imagines that he will be attending a type of camp where "he'd make some friends...[or] swim in the lake" (p. 14). He is used to playing making believe because his family is poor which kept him from ever going anywhere, so that is exactly what Stanley did here...he pretended "he was going to Camp Fun and Games" (p. 14). Unfortunately, Stanley is in for a rude awakening. Stanley Yelnats is not in Kansas anymore!

    Stanley was an overweight boy who had no friends. He was continually harassed by students and teachers alike, yet never stood up for himself. His one consolation was that he was able to laugh at himself and blame his bad luck on "his no-good-dirty-rotten-pig-stealing-great-great-grandfather" (p. 15). Maybe it was his ability to see the positive or maybe it was just that he expected bad things to happen, so he wasn't disappointed when it did so that it helped him get through the tough times. We see glimpses of what Stanley is made of on his bus ride out to the camp. 

    Even though the bus ride took eight hours, Stanley never complained. He stoically kept his thoughts to himself. That is indicative of a strong resolution. He also grins at the state he is in because of his ability to blame it all on the family's bad luck. Instead of just lamenting his fate, he actually "felt a little sorry for the guard and the bus driver" (p. 19) for having to travel back another eight hours.

    After meeting Mr. Sir, the right-hand man to the Warden, Stanley meets Mr. Pendanski, his camp counselor. Stanley doesn't appear to be frightened of his circumstances, instead, he does his best to figure how everything, including people, works. When told by Mr. Pendanski that although he had made some wrong choices, he wasn't "a bad kid" (p. 22), Stanley was wise enough to just agree.

    Stanley is told that the only requirement was for him, and all the other boys, to dig a hole in the dry bed of the lake. The hole had to be the length and width of the shovel he would be using. According to Annette Wannamaker, author of an article titled, "Reading in the Gaps and Lacks: (De)Constructing Masculinity in Louis Sachar's Holes," this "story...involves conforming to stereotypical constructs of masculinity, which require the boy to endure grueling physical trials and which require him to negate the feminine in order to become masculine" (p. 18). Stanley had "soft, fleshy hands" (30) but it wasn't long before "[h]is skin had gotten tougher" (55). His body was not as soft for it his "muscles had strengthened, and his hands were tough and callused" (72). Not only was he changing physically, but Stanley was changing in other ways..."his heart had hardened as well" (p. 73). 

    Stanley goes from a boy who really did care about the way he treated others, to someone who carelessly set aside the feelings of another boy in the camp. Zero (Hector Zeroni) was a quiet, young man to whom Mr. Pendanski referred to as someone with "nothing inside his head" (p. 24). When Zero asks Stanley to teach him how to read, Stanley brushes him off with an excuse about him being too tired, he "needed to save his energy for the people who counted" (p. 73). Luckily, Stanley has a change of heart and agrees to teach Zero how to read in exchange for Zero helping him dig.

    Stanley has something else on his side, his intelligence. He learns why they are digging holes, it is actually an excavation to find the lost treasure of a famous outlaw, Kissing Kate Barlow. Through a quirk of fate, Stanley unearths a cap to a tube of lipstick which causes the Warden to go into a frenzy of having the boys dig in a specific location. Unbeknownst to her, Stanley had given the cap to X-Ray due to an earlier agreement. So, the Warden thought the artifact had come from X-Ray's hole. Of course, nothing more was found, so the boys were told to resume their normal digging. but Stanley remembered the hole he had been digging in when he found it, "d[igging] the hole into his memory" (p. 65).

    I believe the real metamorphoses comes when Stanley steals Mr. Sir's truck in an effort to find Zero, who had previously run off after smacking Mr. Pendanski with a shovel. After putting the truck in a hole, Stanley takes off on foot in search of Zero. He finds him sheltered out of the sun under a beat up old boat with the name Mary Lou on the side. Zero has a stomach ache due to eating some canned peaches which were over a hundred years old. They, of course, did not know that bit of information. Stanley knew they had to find some water if they were to survive. He remembered that his great-grandfather had been stranded out there after he was robbed by Kissing Kate Barlow and his survival was due to taking "refuge on God's thumb" (p. 108). Stanley decided to head there with Zero. 

    Stanley ended up carrying Zero up the mountain, which inadvertently removed a curse upon the Yelnats by Zero's great-great-great-grandmother. They made it to the Thumb and, after some digging, found water. Stanley also found some onions which turned out to be a deterrent to the yellow-spotted lizard, which has a bite that will cause "a slow and painful death" (p. 12). The boys survive and get their strength back before making the long trek back to the camp. It was while they were sleeping on the mountain that Stanley realized "he liked himself now" (p. 154).

    They manage to sneak their way to hole where Stanley first found the lipstick cap and with the help of Zero, they find a suitcase. The Warden, Mr. Sir, and Mr. Polanski discover them and try to take the suitcase away but are unable to because of the many lizards that are on the boys. They never get bit by the lizards because of all the onions they had previously eaten, for "lizards don't like onion blood" (184). The boys are rescued by Stanley's lawyer and the Texas Attorney General. 

    The suitcase, Zero pointed out, belonged to Stanley Yelnats as indicated by the name on the suitcase, which no one else had noticed. There was fortune inside which half went to Zero, or Hector Zeroni. Stanley refused to leave Hector behind, so his lawyer had no choice but to take him as well. Stanley had arrived...he knew he was a better person for having gone to Camp Green Lake.

References

Sachar, Louis (1998). Holes. Random House.

Wannamaker, A. (2006). Reading in the gaps and lacks: (de)constructing masculinity in Louis Sachar’s holes. Children's Literature in Education, 37(1), 15–33. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10583-005-9452-4

    

Final Reflection

     I truly enjoyed having to get out of my comfort zone on some of the assignments. The dialectic gave me an opportunity to get to know someone I might never have talked to otherwise. I think it is healthy to have discussions that might be controversial and share opinions. We can learn so much from one another when we allow ourselves to listen to ideas we might not have considered valid. 

     Another assignment was called Border Crossings in which our instructor wanted us to do something that would be culturally daring (my words, not hers). I truly was at a loss as to what I should do, when it suddenly I had a thought. To be culturally diverse did not necessarily mean to cross over into another tradition, but to act as someone that is not in your realm of normal everyday life. I had the opportunity to immerse myself in a game that is "normally" considered to be played by those much younger than myself. It was a 'role-playing' game which was played by what I will politely refer to as gaming nerds. Since my sons are involved, it is said with much love. It was interesting, to say the least, and I actually enjoyed the game. It was also heartwarming to have been so graciously welcomed. 

    Then came the assignment which required us to do some research in the area of Pop Culture. I chose to do mine on the subject of how the media has portrayed fathers, past and present. In my bit of research, I realized that the role of women throughout this past century has had much influence on how fathers were viewed. I liked the research and the realizations that the discovery brought to me.

    In the middle of the course, our instructor encouraged us to watch a Netflix original documentary titled, 13th. It was a documentary that showed how the media portrayed minorities through the years starting with the presidency of Nixon. The documentary was a bit startling and not for the feint of heart. We have come a long way since the 13th Amendment, but we still have a long way to go. I do believe that what we see coming in some documentaries and the media are told to support certain agendas. Remember, the story is usually one-sided. My thoughts on the subject can be wrapped up in the words by C. S. Lewis, "All that we call human history - money, poverty, ambition war, prostitution, classes, empires, slavery- [is] the long terrible story of man trying to find something other than God which will make him happy,"