A Distant Episode: Setting and the other.

It alarmed me how much I liked this reading. I feel like I can relate to the professor and the setting imagery in so many ways. I first noted that in the beginning when the author was talking about the flaming sky and sharp mountains I had a feeling of Costa Rica in the mountains.  The author then spoke about the smells, Orange blossoms, pepper, sun-baked excrement, burning olive oil, and rotton fruit. I feel like with these sensory details it sort of gives the reader a clue of where the story may go. Then, when the professor arrived at the town gate it said that all the little kids kind of rushed the truck and were grabbing on his property and what not, it seemed a lot more like what TV would portray as a poor northeast African/ middle eastern town.  It made the professor seem uneasy or at least out of his element, when the author described him as “clutching his luggage in vain, and walking quickly into the Grand Hotel”.  Bowles then went on to give a description of the small 8 bedroom hotel, and talk about how the first thing the professor did was wash the “grit from his face and ears”. I feel like I can relate to this, It reminds me of all the random places I stop on the drive back and forth from New Orleans to Balitmore, MD.  I always end up stopping at a little serial killer type town setting, and feel uneasy, also after a long day on the road my eyes get tired and a nice face wash is always welcome.  However I feel as though the professor washing his face somehow symbolized his cleansing, before his almost inevitable seeming fate.  Then after he finds out about his friend Hassan Ramani being deceased, and after receiving his tea the professor left the qaouaji an enormous tip. I felt like this was a serious indicator of things to come. It shows his ignorance of the type of place he’s at, almost if he wanted to set himself up for trouble. Then when he has paid the man for taking him to the place, and he’s walking into blindness, not knowing if there is a cliff or whether the man is going to come back and rob him or harm him, I feel like the other was shown as his fear in the unknown about what is to come. I also felt like while he was being attacked by dogs and shoved with the gun, this was also a way the other was shown, due to the fact that he kept his eyes closed the entire time and he didn’t know who or why they were harming him. The Author did a great job in this story of using the setting to make the story so much more vivid, and almost visible as if it were a Movie, or TV show.

In Paul Bowles, "A Distant Episode", he uses setting a visual clues to really set the scene and to create the story he wants by giving the place such detail. The setting detail that stuck out the most to me was, "Keep on going south, he said. You'll find some languages you never heard before" (90).   The reason this stuck out to me was because of Foster's book "How to Read Literature Like a Professor".  In this book the author talks about how location and setting is key to every story.  He even points out how lots of authors make their characters "go south" which means a drastic change is coming for the character because they are relocating.  If they go south it is for a purpose and will most certainly change that characters life.  An example i have is the book "The Secret Life of Bees".  The main character goes south and finds redemption and people she can call her family.  Lots of the images portrayed in this novel are written very lightly but can be interpreted hugely.  "Turning off the road, they walked across the earth strewn with sharp stones, past the little ruin, through the trees, until they came to a place where the ground dropped abruptly away in front of them" (93).  The author is trying to show how they are feeling.  They are looking down and not seeing land in front of them almost as if they could fall at any moment.  This can be related to the other because you don't know who or what can be down there.  I have felt like the professor in some cases and only recently since i have been around so many people.  We all know people who have behaved like the professor either in his good or bad qualities.  

Interpretation of “A Distant Episode”

In Paul Bowle’s peculiar story “A Distant Episode,” he uses vivid detail and imagery to tell his story. Throughout the entire story, the detail that struck me most was when the author first described the west. “The west…smelled of other things besides the endless ozone of the heights: orange blossoms, pepper, sun-baked excrement, burning olive oil, rotten fruit.” These sensory details help the reader understand the protagonist’s journey from one area to another. Since the details are from the middle of his journey they illustrate the good—orange blossoms, pepper, gradating to the bad—sun-baked excrement, burning olive oil, rotten fruit, which seems to foreshadow the direction of the story.

StateSymbolsUSA.org

            In this story the concept of "the other” is strongly addressed.  In this case “the other” is the professor. To illustrate the theme of “the other,” imagery, language, and culture are utilized. For instance, it is made very clear on the professor’s trip to get a Camel Udder Box that the professor didn’t have any clue about the terrain of the area. To further illustrate the professor as “the other,” the author included a conversation between the professor and his guide, in which, he says, “Everyone knows you… I wish everyone knew me,” which clearly demonstrates the professor being alienated from everyone and thus “the other.”

            Throughout the story, the landscape clearly foreshadows the professor’s decline. Specifically, the further the professor ventures into the dark—the unknown, and harsher terrain the more animal like and disoriented he becomes until he finally is assaulted, and taken into slavery.

Travel-Images.com 

            On a personal level, I have not had an experience similar to the professor in the beginning of the story but I have gone on a somewhat similar journey. This summer I spent a half a week in Venice, Italy. I arrived around 11:00pm and immediately searched for my hostel. Since there are hardly any street signs in Venice this was a difficult task. After asking numerous people and getting contradicting directions I wandered down a dark alley and found the address. However, I had misread the directions. I actually had to go to a restaurant where the hostel owner worked to check in. So I once again wandered around the dimly lit streets of Venice. Eventually, I found the right place and was escorted by two large men to the hotel. While on the way there I began to question on whether or not these guys were associated with the hostel and where they were taking me. For a brief moment I panicked inside my head while we went down a dark ally way and into a sparsely labeled building. But once I found out they were legitimate I felt a sense of relief. Although the outcome was worlds away from the outcome in “A Distant Episode,” I feel that I can relate to the Professors sense of anxiety when he doesn’t know where he is being led or what might happen. 

Akon's Right Now

A couple of years ago R&B singer, Akon, came out with a song called “Right Now.”  In the song Akon sings during the chorus, “I wanna make up right now now now.”  The song was very popular on the radio back when it first came out, and my little cousin, RJ, who was about eight or nine years old was a fan of the song.  Even though when I heard the song and understood that Akon was singing I want to make up, my little cousin who was probably paying more attention to the beat of the song than the actual words, thought that Akon was singing, “I wanna make love right now now now,” and so this is what he would sing when he would be singing the song when it was stuck in his head.  Being eight or nine, he had no idea what he was saying had a completely different meaning than what the song stood for.  One time we were in the car with my aunt and he started singing his version of the song and my aunt began to fuss, saying how he shouldn’t be saying such things.  RJ, confused because he had no idea what he was saying, didn’t protest, but just remained quite and accepted his mom’s fussing.  I just sat in the passenger seat smiling to myself at how one song’s lyrics could have so many differ interpretation for one carful of riders.  One was the original version and the version that I heard, “I want to make up.”  The other was what RJ heard, “I want to make love,” but in a completely innocent way.  And the third was how my Aunt Valerie heard it, the way RJ was singing it but in a completely vulgar way.  I wonder if Akon knew this pop hit would end up being so controversial.From ask men.com

Racism

Growing up, my mom always made sure I understood whatever situation I was exposed to.  She always taught me to be accepting of every race, religion, sexual orientation, gender, and economic class.  I have always tried to live my life in the accepting way my mother taught me.  Over the summer, however, I learned how racist and discriminatory my boyfriend could be.  We were watching a movie and he commented on it, calling the Italians in the movie by a derogatory name.  Being Italian, I took personal offense to the comment.  He had no clue why I was offended. Shortly after this, my boyfriend and I were driving and he got angry at another driver, who looked Middle Eastern.  The short burst of words that came out of my boyfriend's mouth were not only offensive, but they were full of unsupported claims about the man, like that he was cheap, illegally in America, and was a terrorist.  We ended up getting into a pretty big fight over his words.  When we calmly talked about the incidents, he explained to me that he was never taught acceptance by his parents, and to him, racism is natural.  For me, acceptance is natural and socially accepted, to the point where I told him that if he continues his racist comments around me, I would break up with him.
Although he has ceased the racist comments around me, it still bothers me to know that he is racist.  I have never experienced racism in such a way, and it bother me to know that the man I am dating isn't as accepting of differences as I am.  Our different upbringings have led to two completely different perspectives on equality and acceptance.

The Truth of the Easter Bunny

When I was younger, I believed every word  my parents told me and never questioned them.  Now when I say I believed everything they told me, I mean everything from eating carrots to make my eye sight better, to a large over weight jolly man who slides down the chimney, eats some cookies, drinks some milk, and leaves me gifts for being a good girl.  My parents brought me up to be obedient and to listen.  Anytime I was disobedient, I would be sent to sit on the stair case for hours on end.  One time, I not so sneakily stole a cookie before dinner and was sent to the stairs for what felt like an eternity.  I decided from that point on that I would never put myself through that kind of torture again.  So when they told me that every year around April, we celebrate Easter and that means that the Easter Bunny visits our home and leaves Easter baskets, full of chocolate and jelly beans and toys, I believed them.  But I was a curious child and always needed to know why.  

I remember asking my mother, "Mom, how does a bunny carry baskets and get into our house without a key?"  She looked at me and said, "Well Elena, the Easter Bunny is a special bunny.  He is larger than most bunnies and has been trained to carry baskets.  He doesn't need a key because just like Santa, he always finds his way into the house." That still didn't make sense to me so I said "But how mom? We have an alarm, won't that go off when he comes in?" I will always remember her response.  She said "No, the Easter Bunny is not a bad guy and the alarm protects us from bad guys."  I looked at her and said, "Oh OK, that makes sense.  The Easter Bunny is really good and brings us presents."  That was the end of that discussion.

From Wikipedia

Anytime I saw a bunny from that point on, that bunny symbolized Easter and chocolate and egg hunts.  I would even feel sorry for that bunny because I saw how small it was and knew it would never be big enough to be the Easter Bunny.  I found myself feeling sad for every bunny I saw, not realizing that no one else felt that way.  To anyone else looking at that bunny, they saw a cute, fluffy rabbit.  It's no surprise that when I finally learned that my parents were in fact the "Easter Bunny", I was crushed and confused.  You mean to tell me that all these years I ACTUALLY BELIEVED that a fluffy bunny came into my home, carrying baskets, and left presents?  What was I thinking?

That experience taught me that other people have the ability to sway a person's interpretation of a symbol.  Especially if it is a parental figure, someone who plays such a strong role in your life and who dictates to you right from wrong.  A symbol can have multiple interpretations, it all just depends on who is providing the interpretation.  That is the beauty of it.  My parents let me believe that every bunny was the Easter Bunny because if they tried to convince me otherwise, their story of the Easter Bunny would unravel and they would be exposed.  To be honest, of all the stories my parents told me when I was little, this is the one I wish was true.

Nationalism and Neo-Nazism in the Balkans

website for photo

Since WWII, the swastika remains one of the most powerful and infamous symbols on the planet. For most, myself included, it evokes images of concentration camps and Hitler’s anti semitic agenda. However, in some places, while still a sign of neo-nazism and hate, it has a slightly different connotation. I spent my summer two years ago in Bosnia and Herzegovina visiting my Croatian family. One day, I noticed a swastika spray-painted on the back of a stop sign. I assumed it was the work of an ignorant youth, but I soon noticed several of them painted around the town of Mostar, where some of my family lives in Herzegovina. I realized it was not a coincidence or the act of one fool, but it didn’t make sense for Croats to hate Jews considering Balkan people have been busy fighting each other for so long. I was appalled and, frankly, a little scared. I asked my aunt how anyone could be so ignorant and insensitive. The explanation that she gave me was surprising, but also confirmed my belief: that whoever was painting swastikas was probably not expressing anti semitic sentiments, but far-right, nationalist sentiments. Basically, during WWII, a far-right, nationalist Croatian group called the Ustaše sided with the Nazis believing that in doing so, they would triumph and finally be able to form an independent Croatia. Terrible acts of persecution and genocide were carried out by the Ustaše, but it was not the Jews that were targeted, it was primarily the Serbs and Bosnians, (and to a lesser degree, the Romani). In Herzegovina and Croatia, the symbol that most of the world associates with anti semitism is more representative of support for the Ustaše, a group well-known to have committed crimes against humanity. Sadly, the swastika’s presence serves as evidence that the sentiments that brought upon the bloody war that led to Yugoslavia’s split are alive and well, and that some people would rather stall progress by continuing to live with hate for their Balkan neighbors than accept each other and learn to coexist.

Different Perspectives

            Attending public schools my whole life has affected my perspective and views in more ways than one, and definitely for the better.  Being Muslim, there are many rules in my religion, and they are very important to follow.  Thankfully my parents did a great job of teaching me right from wrong, what I am allowed to do and what I am not without sending me to a private Islamic school.  They trust me to do what they have taught me and stay away from trouble and that’s what makes me so confident in how I act and the things I do.  It also makes them proud and able to trust me. 

Taken from: ACLU

Many of the Muslim girls my age have attended and graduated from an Islamic school.  This has its advantages, but I also feel like the parents enroll their kids in those types of schools for the wrong reasons.  They force their children to go to private Islamic schools just to keep them away from the rest of the world; afraid they will do something to go against our religion.  Eventually of course, the students become comfortable with where they’re at, but they also start to wonder about other people’s lives and what they are missing out on, sometimes causing them to get into even more trouble by going behind their parents’ back.

My high school held multiple dances over the years and my mom allowed me to go to them.  Many Muslim mothers would not allow their daughters to go if given the opportunity, assuming it will be something too out of the ordinary, and unnecessary.  It was obvious to me that I could not dance with any of the guys and I had to stay out in the open where everyone else was.  Whenever my Muslim friends would find out I went to a dance they’d say things like “you’re so lucky you went to the dance” or “how did you get your mom to let you go?” like it was something so unusual to them.  But to me it was just normal, it was high school and I paid extra attention to everything that went on.  And with all the events, the games, and the people I hung out with, I had the chance to learn about so many different things and learn to love people no matter what! People loved me in return; I was voted “most friendly” and prom queen my senior year.  I had the perfect high school experience and I wouldn’t trade it for anything.

Having been able to spend my whole life with people of different races and religions made me a better, more accepting person.  There will always be symbols and situations where two people or groups of people have different thoughts or opinions.  It’s all about understanding each other and seeing why the other person thinks the way they do.  I’ll always listen to what someone else has to say because it may also help me think in a different, better way.  But no matter what I’ll always be one with positive thoughts and ideas.

Curl Coveters:Tales from the Fro

People often mistake my Afro for a petting zoo. They poke, pull, prod, and pat my dense curls in hopes of understanding just what makes my head of hair so darn curly. For 21 years I’ve struggled to make sense of the science behind each one of my tiny curls…and I finally feel as though I’ve broken some new ground.  In the last two years, I’ve had an ongoing epiphany that led me to change the way I was living. Instead of constantly struggling to smooth my curls into flat, slick tresses, I decided to embrace the unknown and LEARN to tame the curly beast inhabiting my scalp.

For most of my life always, I placed my hair in the driver’s seat…allowing it to dictate my look of the day and feeling of the moment.  This drove me to the brink of insanity, since I saw long flowing locks as THE symbol of beauty. Realizing that hair length is a choice, the majority of the time, still wasn’t enough to shift my perspective that long, straight hair was a reflection of beauty.

People view their hair as their crowns of glory, and for women this crown is socially accepted as beautiful it is long, thick and reminiscent of an Herbal Essences ad. Since every aspect of your outer appearance is an expression of your character…your physicality’s a mere extension of your personality; it was truly important for me to find a hairstyle that I felt suited my personality.

In the late 60’s and early 70’s American society became entrenched in hippie lifestyle, bohemian chic attire, and the “black power” movement. Films from this era commonly depicted African Americans associated with this movement sporting large picked out Afro hair styles, wide leg bell bottoms, and brandishing the infamous black power fist. Flaunting a huge Afro during this time was a representation of ethnic pride and strength through diversity.

Now that brief history lesson may seem out of place in this discussion, but it really plays a large part in how my hair is interpreted in society and pop culture. I overheard a friend sharing their feelings about natural hair on black women, which is what prompted this blog topic. She said she loved the look of Afros, and wished that she could have hair that “looked like that.” When I questioned her further about her tendency to covet curls, she said that she felt that it showed strength and confidence in a woman who chooses to wear her hair in an Afro.

This was an interesting and new interpretation of what my hair symbolized for someone else. I had never thought about wearing my curly fro while exuding an air of confidence, but that’s because I spent all of my brainpower wishing it looked different!  Which is the exact opposite of confidence! Funny. To think about all of the time I spent in front mirrors hoping to just look “ok” when others thought I was walking with my head held high.

To bring this story full circle: symbols are slaves to interpretation.  The only way to give a symbol any meaning or power is become the interpreter. I thought my hair was the foundation of my “womanly beauty” thus allowing my hair to interpret my level of confidence. What I didn’t realize was that the world around me was choosing to view my hair as a mere extension of the confidence and beauty I already possessed. 

Things That Shape Us

One of the closest people to me also happens to be one of the only people in my life with polar-opposite views than me on just about everything. My friend and I also happen to get into huge debates on the many issues that we come across when reading stories in the news, or even something within our own lives. Coming from a prep school, I am no stranger to expensive education. In fact, it’s always been the “norm” for me. So when applying to colleges and for school loans I never exactly thought about how outrageous the cost of higher education is. Like I said, to me it’s always simply been the way it is. However, I can honestly say that after awhile, the amount of debt I would be in once I graduated began to sink in. Especially upon discovery that a certain political candidate had potential plans to raise interest on student loans, something I was sure the majority of us would not be too pleased with.

My friend, however, saw nothing at all wrong with this plan. In her eyes, if you can’t afford to attend a certain school, then don’t. Otherwise, you should know what you’re getting yourself into.  At first, I was deeply angered by her comment because it seemed so incredibly ignorant to me. It’s certainly not as simple as she put it, and it outraged me that she truly believed something like that. After another one of our very heated debates, I took a step back and realized that I shouldn’t be angry with her for seeing things that way. We were raised in two completely different households surrounded by our parents who had opposite views on how to reach success. The things that my friend had experienced in her life are what shaped every single one of her beliefs, and the same for me as well. It was at that moment I actually had to realize that there were going to be people in my life who were going to see things in ways that I found to be absurd.

When Foster wrote, “We bring an individual history to our reading”, this is exactly what he meant. In a broader sense of his words, we interpret things based on beliefs instilled on to us by those who raised us as well as what we’ve experienced throughout our lives. We’ve all led completely different lives and will continue to. We all have an “individual history,” that is why we take away separate understandings of all the things that we see collectively. 

A Person to Represent

            In high school, my senior English teacher had my classmates and I memorize literary definition of symbol that he gave us. Till this day I can still recite the definition verbatim, “An object, animate or inanimate, which represents or stands for something else. A literary symbol combines an image with a concept. It may be public or private, universal or local. In literary works we find instances of the use of a concrete image to express an emotion of an abstract idea”.  Thinking back on it now, I guess that is the best way to describe a symbol. Symbol is whatever a person wants something to stand for.

            In religion, you always hear of martyrs that die for sticking to what they believe in. A friend of mine, Renee, and I were walking out of class after hearing about martyrs and she says “I just think it’s a bit overdramatic how these people got themselves killed because they couldn’t hide what they believed, they should have just kept their mouths shut and they wouldn’t have died”. In all honesty I was shocked that she had said something like that. I had always believed martyrs were pretty amazing in their own right. Not that they died but that they didn’t let people change what they believed in and that even knowing they would be in trouble if they continued to speak out. So it had surprised me to her say that, I just assumed others thought the same way.

            Going back to definition I gave earlier, I think that the same object having different meanings to different people has to with it being on where they got the symbol from. It all has to do with how people were taught to perceive things, each person was taught differently and each person has their own unique mindset. So what s symbol represents is all focused on the person who sees the symbol.

St. Ursula

Blog 2: Homelessness

Several weeks ago, I was riding downtown with a friend of mine, Michael. As we drove, we passed a number of homeless people sleeping under a bridge, and I made a comment that the large of a number of homeless people sleeping in the streets is a symbol of how far the economy has to go just to put people back to work. He stated that he had a different view of this situation. He viewed homelessness as a symbol of how lazy and drug infested people have become. He felt that if people really wanted a job, they could get one. People just needed to pick themselves up by the bootstraps and get to work. I was stunned by his comments as I had just read an article on the large number of houses that are in foreclosure and many families were being left destitute. I let him know that people are affected by situations beyond their control and sometimes they just need a helping hand. Most people are homeless because of external forces, not by their own personal choosing.

I believe my view of what homelessness symbolizes was shaped by my first hand experience talking to homeless people. As part of our religion class in middle school, we went to the French Quarter to hand out sandwiches, gloves, and socks. Speaking with these people, I could see their pain and the shame they felt at their situation, and I gained an enormous amount of insight into how large of a problem this really is. I suggested to Michael that he spend some time talking to homeless people and his view of what this symbolizes may change.  Whereas Michael and I currently disagree on the factors that lead to homelessness, we both agree that something needs to be done to help people get off the streets.

 

From Uptown News

Cultural Pride or Racial Oppression?

     When I was younger, my older sister’s boyfriend (at the time) temporarily moved into my mother’s home; however, he didn’t only bless us with his presence. Along with him came his possessions, one of which caused controversy in our household. I recall waking up to my oldest brother shouting about racism, accusing my sister’s boyfriend of a being racist because of the Confederate flag.  Why? Wasn’t this flag a symbol of culture, a historical symbol of Southern heritage? Why was my brother so offended? Did the fact that this man included this flag in his luggage mean we invited racism into our home? In this personal experience, Foster couldn’t be more correct when he writes about individual histories and racial backgrounds influencing the interpretations of symbolism.

     Internet research was required on my part in order to understand if this flag was truly a symbol of cultural pride or racial oppression. Slavery was undoubtedly the driving force behind the succession of the Confederate States, but perhaps we have to step into the “mind of the times” to realize there might be more to it than that. It was also a matter of economic disagreements and violation of state’s rights, a dividing line of exactly how much control the federal government had over individual states. Provided these issues all surrounded around the subject of slavery, which, of course, is prejudice in nature.

     Depending on the viewer, this flag can have completely different meanings. My sister’s boyfriend (at the time) was Caucasian, while my oldest brother is of mixed-races. Although both were raised in the South, it is possible that my sister’s boyfriend had closer connections to his geographical heritage. However, in my opinion, individual histories and racial backgrounds are the ultimate factors which color one’s interpretation in this situation.

     The debate over what the Confederate flag symbolizes is still a controversial issue in today’s society, and many have moved for it to be banned in their communities. Students have been sent home from school for wearing shirts with similar designs, and some courthouses have removed the flag from the interior to the outdoors as a means of negotiation. Although I do not have a particularly strong opinion in this matter, I find it to be an irrational thought or hope that the flag can ever be stripped of the negative associations attached to it. Even if it is a symbol of cultural pride, the culture in which it takes pride in was one engrossed in bigotry. Regardless, what the flag symbolizes is a matter of perspective.