Death Over Life

            After reading the poem “Lady Lazarus” by Sylvia Plath one can see that Plath (the narrator) does not want to live and that her life is filled with suffering. She is constantly referring to suicide and death. She also uses many metaphors throughout the essay. Sylvia Plath is ready for death.

In "Lady Lazarus," Plath confesses her several attempts to commit suicide. In the second stanza, it seems like she kills herself and comes back to life. She can't explain how she's still alive, "A sort of walking miracle." Plath mentions her fight against life, she calls life her enemy, "O my enemy" something that won't let her die. Because every time she tries to commit suicide, she's being brought back to life by doctors. She mentions that she is like a cat "And like the cat I have nine times to die." She has no success in killing herself, but she looks forward to the ninth time, in which she'll die for good. Plath also seems to be celebrating the times she has died and she seems proud of it. “I do it exceptionally well.” She reveals that her suffering is life. “The sour breath/ I turn and burn.”

            In the poem it is clear that Plath resents the times she has been saved from death. One can see this in the lines “Comeback in broad day/To the same place, the same face the same brute.” She gives the reader an idea on how much she is trying to avoid life because her life is filled with suffering.

           

Plath also uses the symbol of Lazarus which is a biblical reference to the man named Lazarus who Jesus raised from the dead. With the title of the poem being “Lady Lazarus” Plath is symbolizing that she is like Lazarus in the sense that she has risen from death on many separate occasions. She also uses the symbol of the phoenix, “Out of the ash/I rise with my red hair.” The phoenix is another symbol for something that rises from the dead because a phoenix is a mythological bird that when it died would set on fire and from the ashes a new bird would be born. 

Fordson

The film Fordson: Faith, Fasting, Football and The American Dream was an eye opening film for me. I learned a lot about the Islamic faith and the culture Muslims have. The movie was about a community in Dearborn, MI that is predominately Arab-American and the local Fordson High Schools football team. The football team is preparing for their cross-town rivalry game that is during Ramadan.  This film opened my eyes to a culture that I really did not know that much about and I couldn’t help but compare and contrast the Catholic faith that I practice and Islam. Also as a football player I understood what the guys were going through.

            After watching this film I had a whole new perspective on the Islamic faith. I never knew how important family was to the Islamic faith. The film shows how important family is by showing how the families during Ramadan would always eat there only meal of the day together. I like that they do that because I believe that family is everything. I also was impressed with the commitment people had towards their faith because during Ramadan they do not eat all day until after sunset. This is incredible to me because I don’t know if I could ever do that for a solid month. While watching this film as a Catholic I started to think what period of time during the year I have to fast. I instantly thought about Lent and how a Catholics are not allowed to eat meat on Fridays. I realized that not eating meat on Fridays is not that bad because these people only eat one meal a day for about a whole month.

           

As a football player I was very impressed that even during practice for a huge rivalry game the Islamic players still did not drink water or anything. All I can say is wow. To not have water during practice would be an extremely hard thing for me and on top of that not having anything to eat the whole day would drive me crazy. To be that dedicated to your faith is a very honorable thing because as a person who has been in high school and played football it is easy to get caught up and feel like football is the center of your universe. But in all reality it is not. These kids in this film showed that even though football is a big part of their lives, there are still more important things then it. These kids showed how dedicated they are to their faith and family. Looking back at it I wish that I dedicated myself to my faith the way those kids do. 

Family Ties

When thinking of the word kindred, the words that come to mind are: intimate, personal, home.  Octavia Butler bases her novel, Kindred, on family in an interesting way.  Little does Dana know prior to escaping the present, she is sent back in time to tend to her ancestors.  Butler wisely chooses familial ties to be incorporated in the novel to demonstrate the hardships and struggles between black and white, and how Dana is to deal with what she believes to be wrong.  The story would be dramatically different if Dana was not sent to save Rufus, who is part of her bloodline, and more so every reason to keep him alive.

When Dana first saves Rufus, she is confused as to why she is sent and why her in particular.  When coming to the realization that Rufus’ last name is Weylin, she thinks to herself, “Was that why I was here?  Not only to ensure the survival of one accident-prone small boy, but to ensure my family’s survival, my own birth” (29).  It is clear to Dana that by changing the past, the future is in jeopardy.  Her thoughts soon lead to, “But this child needed special care.  If I was to live, if others were to live, he must live.  I didn’t care test the paradox” (29).  As much as Dana disagrees with Rufus at times, he is her part of her history—part of her own blood.  For that, she has a difficult time coping with the man that she is to save, yet wants to kill.  If Rufus had not been part of her family, I think Dana would have managed things much differently.  She would not feel a special connection as well as a desire to keep her and her family alive.

Dana and Rufus’ relationship grows in an interesting way.  She feels a sense of hatred toward him, yet goes on forgiving him time after time.  She thinks to herself, “However little sense it made, I cared.  I must have.  I kept forgiving him for things…” (180).  This is what family is all about.  Forgiveness.  When thinking about Rufus raping Alice, she thinks, “It was so hard to watch him hurting her—to know that he had to go on hurting her if my family was to exist at all” (180).  Dana is in a tough position because Rufus and Alice are to bear a child, a child that will confirm Dana’s existence.   If it had not depended on that, I think Dana would go about handling Rufus and Alice’s relationship in a completely different light.  She would have no reason to hold back because her life would not depend on it.

The section of “The Rope” is when the novel takes full turn.  Alice passes on from suicide or Rufus’ doing—we are not sure—and now that she is gone, Rufus makes a pass at Dana.  As he is holding her down she thinks to herself, “I could accept him as my ancestor, my brother, my friend, but not my master, and not as my lover” (260).  The moment Rufus seems farthest from family as possible is when Dana has the strength to put it all to an end.  She is aware that she can go on living without Rufus now that Hagar has been born and Alice is gone.

Kindred is such a powerful piece of literature that I found myself wanting more and more.  It is difficult to put the book down.  Butler thoughtfully chooses to tie in familial bonds to create a sense of indifference and internal struggle.  Dana feels at home on the plantation, for there are personal and intimate connections.  Fighting to save someone who is doing something morally wrong is a hardship one must decide in order to survive.

Fordson: Faith, Fasting, Football

Cassandra McCulley

Dr. Sharon Oster

ENGL 130

Extra Credit: “Fordson: Faith, Fasting, Football”

Rashid Ghazi’s film, “Fordson: Faith, Fasting, Football” was a film that captured the essence of a religion, culture, and sport in such a beautiful manner. Powerful messages were brought to light throughout the film by Ghazi and the Fordson High School football team. This film opened up my eyes not only about the Muslim faith and religion, but also about the way Muslim Arab Americans were viewed and treated after the tragedy of 9/11.

In his film, Ghazi features the Fordson High School football team from Dearborn, Michigan. The high school itself is about 3,340 students, with an estimated 95% Arabic population; the football team has an estimated 98% Arabic population. The film discusses the stereotype that most Arabs are accustomed to soccer, but in this particular community, fathers, sons, brothers, and cousins are all die hard football players and fans.

The film begins with an uplifting spirit and sets the mood for an inspirational story, however, Ghazi chose to incorporate the impact made on the school and its football team after the terrorist attacks of 9/11. The school was continuously threatened, and the players were victims of discrimination. A particular quote from the movie stuck out to me that describes the Arab American community and the way they are treated as, “One day a respected neighbor, the next day a suspected enemy.” One player in particular, witnessed his own brother become a victim of discrimination. It amazed me that a football team of teenage boys were able to conduct themselves with poise and continue on their paths of self determination, even though they were constantly being discriminated against by the entire nation based on their religion and ethnicity. This raised questions to me. Why, as a nation, are we so quick to call ourselves victims of these terrorist attacks, while we ourselves have put our own brothers and sisters through hardships just as bad? Did we not bind up African Americans and use them as slaves? Did we not force Japanese Americans into refugee camps after the bombing of Pearl Harbor? How can we call ourselves the land of the free and promote the American dream if we patronize various cultures and religions?

Despite the discrimination, the football players constantly practiced their Muslim religion. The religion, however, did pose a few hardships during season. Ramadan. The holy month of fasting. Each year, the Muslim faith participates in Ramadan, 30 days of fasting. Each day, members of the Muslim faith refrain from food and drink from sunrise to sunset. But, for a teenage boy who wakes up every morning to go to school for seven hours, followed by another several hours of football practice. This particular film shows the football team preparing for their largest rivalry game while undergoing the fasting of Ramadan. I thought this was simply amazing. During all the intense exercise and workouts, these boys are unable to have a sip of water, yet they do not complain and even succeeded in beating their cross-town rivals. I found it particularly inspiring that coaches that did not practice the faith decided to take part in the fast as well, in order to see what their players were going through. At the end of the film, we learned that the head coach decided to hold over night practices during Ramadan so that the workouts were not so trying on the players.

I thoroughly enjoyed this film and learned not only a lot about their culture, but I also was able to stop myself and break some stereotypes that have been planted. “We cannot defend freedom abroad, by deserting it at home.”

Kindred: What Would You Do?

In Octavia E. Butler's powerful novel, Kindred, an African American woman that lives in California in 1976 is involuntarily taken back in time to Maryland in 1815. The protagonist, Dana, realizes very early on in the novel that the place she keeps visiting in Maryland is in fact a plantation that her ancestors were slaves on before the Civil War. Dana knows that she cannot change the course of events in the 1800s or else she might cease to exist. Rufus Weylin, the slave master's son, is the reason Dana travels back and forth between the two times. When Rufus is near death, Dana returns to the 1800s, but when Dana's life is threatened on the plantation, she returns to 1976.

Dana is able to see first hand what her ancestors when through as slaves and she tries to teach some morality to the slave masters. However, Rufus began to turn on her and treat her as a slave. But Dana was faces with the problem that if she were to kill Rufus, the man that continuously beats her and holds her from her freedom, she would no longer exist because he is the man who bore Dana's great great grandmother (great grandmother?).

This novel brought up many questions and thoughts within me. What if I were to travel back in time and witness first hand what my predecessors had to endure? Although I am not of African American descent, I am Mexican. And although many people do not study or know this, Mexican American's were treated similarly to blacks. On the west coast, southwest, and into Texas, Mexican American's were lynched, beaten, and worked to the bone.

I did do research on the treatment and discrimination of my ancestors and came to find that when my great grandparents first came from Mexico, they worked in the field year round since they were six years old. The Texas Rangers were white men of power who would travel throughout Texas and beat Mexicans simply because they could. On several undocumented occasions, Mexican Americans were taken from their homes and lynched.

When my grandparents were growing up in Texas, my grandfather (a dark skinned Mexican) was discriminated against almost constantly. He was turned away from restaurants, he was treated unfairly, and was beaten up for no reasons at all; while my grandmother (a light skinned Mexican) was only discriminated against if she spoke, due to her heavy accent, otherwise simply based on the color of her skin, she was treated equally.

I couldn't imagine going through what Dana did, but I can only be thankful for what my predecessors have done for me. This novel opened up my eyes and really made me realize how blessed I am that because of what my ancestors endured, I can live my life with less worry.

Damaged Beyond Repair

http://astraldreamer.deviantart.com/

Cynthia Ozick’s, “The Shawl”, manages to evoke the cold horror in the heart of the Holocaust and the madness that essentially embodies those who have gone through such a tragic episode.  The narrator thoughtfully introduces the experience of adversity in different ways that will determine the future of three girls and the life they will live, or not.  Rosa, a mother, does everything in her power to protect her daughter, Magda.  A special shawl, viewed to possess magical qualities, is the very purpose of living.  It is the gateway to freedom, nurture, and survival.  The shawl functions symbolically in many ways and poses as different sources of life.  For Magda, the shawl represents shelter, food, and warmth, which are all necessities one would need to survive.  For Rosa, it represents possession, obsession, and her past.  Rosa’s niece, Stella, views the shawl as a way to escape the cold.  Ironically, she is viewed as “the coldness of Hell” (Ozrick 1) after taking the magical shawl that everyone seems to want control over.  Not having the same involvement of being a mother, Stella has a difficult time understanding Rosa’s stubbornness of clinging to the past.  After losing Magda, Rosa loses everything.  It is the shawl that enables her to hold on to her lost possessions.  Stella and Mr. Persky, a stranger who begins to break Rosa’s barriers, have a different view on the life that she is to live.

While Rosa remains broken and angry, Stella is able to move on and live her life.  Rosa’s madness and insane behavior makes perfect sense, but not to the ones around her, for “[her] Warsaw, isn’t [their] Warsaw” (19).  Readers may view Rosa to be crazy, insane, and downright mad!  She does not want to let go of the life she once lived.  It is her stubbornness that forces the people around her to become annoyed.  Rosa fails to see the support she does have and rather dwells in loneliness.  Her conversation with Mr. Persky demonstrates just that:

“I’ll walk you.”

“No, no, sometimes a person feels to be alone.”

“If you’re alone too much…you think too much.”

“Without a life…a person lives where they can.  If all they got is thoughts,
that's where they live."

“You ain’t got a life?”

“Thieves took it.” (27-28)

Rosa is comfortable being alone, for it is all she has known since coming to America.  She wants to “live in her thoughts” because she is able to access Magda by writing letters, ritualizing with the shawl, and reliving the memories.

By moving on from an event and merely forgetting the memories can seem cold, insensitive, and in Rosa’s case: vulgar.  She refers to Stella as “the Angel of Death” (15) and Mr. Pensky a thief, which parallels those who took her life.  I believe this to be a defense mechanism.  Rosa is creating a barrier and is reliving “the life before, the life during…” in her “life after”, as if creating her own concentration around her.  For what she has gone through, her insane behavior makes all the sense.  I can empathize with Rosa, for I too have lost a loved one.  Coping is very difficult, but I know that my dad would want me to live my life to the fullest and not hold back.  The memories will always be there to cherish.  Stella and Mr. Persky are indeed living their lives, and Rosa is living hers just the way she pleases.

Breaking Down "Daddy" by Sylvia Plath

Cassandra McCulley

Dr. Sharon Oster

March 25, 2012

Breaking Down “Daddy” by Sylvia Plath

            After reading Sylvia Plath’s poem, “Daddy” for the first time, I really didn’t know what to think. I wasn’t sure if the narrator was Sylvia herself, I wasn’t sure if the father being described was indeed a Nazi, and I had very little knowledge about Sylvia Plath’s background to begin with.

            Throughout the entire poem Plath, the narrator, describes things that she has been feeling her entire life. We know this because on line three she clearly states, “For thirty years…” (3). So now that she is grown and writing this poem, we realize she is reflecting on her childhood. Her style of writing seems almost childish, somewhat similar to the old nursery rhyme, “There was an old woman that lived in a shoe…” This connection suggests to me, as a reader, that she is unable to let go of her past. She also uses other childish words and language such as the word “daddy”, also showing that she is unable to let go of the things that happened to her as a child.

            We later realize that her father died when she was quite young. Plath writes, “Daddy, I have had to kill you./ You died before I had time—,” (6-7). When I read this line I had to think it over a few times. By saying that she had to kill her father, I translated that to she had to forget him, she had to kill her memories of him. When she said he died before she had time, I wonder what she meant. What wasn’t she able to do before he died? This is answered later in the poem.

            Continuing on in the poem, we realize that communication was a big problem for Plath. In lines 24 through 30 she writes, “I never could talk to you./ The tongue stuck in my jaw./ It stuck in a barb wire snare./ Ich, ich, ich, ich,/ I cold hardly speak./ I though every German was you./ And the language obscene.” (24-30). Here we begin to realize that Plath was unable to communicate with her father. She was so scared that she could hardly speak. We also begin to see Plath’s references to the Holocaust. She continues to compare her father to a Nazi, and herself to a Jew. She was a prisoner, helpless, unwanted, a weak oppressed victim of her father.

            Then Plath began to talk about her own brushes with death. “I was ten when they buried you./ At twenty I tried to die/ And get back, back, back to you.” (57-60). She is describing her own three attempts at suicide here in such a unique way. I didn’t know she had attempted to suicide, although I did know she eventually succeeded in doing so. This was an interesting way of sneakily incorporating her death experiences.

            Plath’s writing continued to stump me. “And I said I do, I do./ So daddy, I’m finally through./ The black telephone’s off at the root,/ The voices just can’t worm through. If I’ve killed one man I’ve killed two--/ The vampire who said he was you/ And drank my blood for a year,/ Seven years, if you want to know.” (67-74). It took me quite some time to realize that she indeed married a man just like her father, who like a vampire, sucked the life out of her. But like her father, she left her husband, and is trying to get rid of all memory of him. I love the way Plath wrote about her husband in this poem. I love the parallels she creates between her husband and her father, and how hard she is trying to convey the message that she wants to be free of them and the memory of them.

            Although the poem clearly says that Plath is through, she never can be truly through because this poem will live on forever since the moment she put it down on paper. I understand why Plath received so much criticism from people during the time period the poem was written because World War II and the Holocaust were fresh subjects and she was deemed somewhat disrespectful because she compared her father and childhood to the Holocaust. But I think it really was beautiful writing. She was trying to connect to people, and make the poem so dramatic in the sense that people would be able to understand and somewhat relate. Although it seems controversial, I think this is an overall beautiful piece and is very intricately written.