Other Americas 3299

      This poem is a piece that is important as it shows the daily life of a Caribbean girl and the struggle of not trying to be seen as a "slut" by society, something girls in most cultures unfortunately have to deal with. It is an interesting piece as it's written in such a way that the daughter is being taught how to do all these different things to become a functioning person in society. This poem also shows how women during this time are forced to do all the household chores and are looked upon as lesser than men. There is a constant worry for the women of the society to always be seen as clean so they do not become undesirable. Her mother is trying as hard as possible to make sure her daughter doesn't become known as a "slut" in the society by teaching her the correct way to do everything. This is something we've seen throughout the semester and the constant struggles women go through in order to live up to men's standards. I feel like the writ...

      Derek Walcott was one of the first writers I had heard of prior to this class as he won a Nobel Peace Price for his work. Walcott is best known for this works about Caribbean lifestyle and its effects of post colonialism. He has an interesting way of relating things as he related a fisherman to the Trojan War in his piece, "From Omeros". The interview part really showcased where he is coming from in his works and provides a helpful insight into his life making his pieces more meaningful when you read them. As a writer Walcott seems to possess this ability to make his pieces meaningful to such a large audience. It is interesting when he talks about how he had always wanted to be a writer, this seems out of the ordinary as this was probably not a popular profession in the Caribbean due to the typical level of poverty in these places. As he talks about in the interview his family had always been involved in the arts and literature and the passing of...

           This story talks about peoples commitment to their religion and how people follow it so blindly and will do what the head of the faith says. The story showcases this as a man with no specific background comes into town promising he is able to offer people "ins" into the afterlife and without any hesitation people from the local clergy start lining up for entrance into the afterlife when they die. This is an interesting topic of how people are so willing to follow their religious beliefs and do what they think is necessary to achieve the main goal of the religion. This is going to be a little off topic but I'd like to look at how this has been happening throughout all of history and it's affects. The catholic church is one of the main religions known for doing this. They at one point solid indulgences which was basically paying for confession, therefore allowing you to do whatever you wanted and for a small sum of money your si...

      This story deals with the struggle of being biracial and how people are not very accepting of this. A quote in a story lays the foundation for the rest of the piece, " After that night I began to think about everything, who my parents were, about my mother, where my father is from." Throughout the piece the main character struggles with the idea that her mom and dad come from different racial background. She is able to see the mistreatment of people like her father for being a person of color, while on the other hand her mom has not had to face any hardship as she is white. Since she was biracial she would be made fun of at school and other places as during these times people didn't accept people of color they would even refer to her as a "half-breed". Since her parents are from two different races she is also tasked with having to deal with being looked down upon on her moms side as they are not very approving of her. Meanwhile she has to deal with not co...

          This story is an interesting one as it deals with jealousy between two brothers after the death of their father. The older brother is jealous of the younger brothers athletic ability and how fast his new family accepts him and likes him. This is a change of pace compared to the other stories we've read this semester which typically have to deal with race. This story can relate to most people as in most families if not all there is some sort of sibling rivalry. Although this story does not deal with race it still deals with the idea of wealth as the younger brother is more spoiled while the older brother gets in trouble just trying to get by. A quote from the story showcases this, " I don't like hating people, but when him step in through the door with him new bag, new shoes, new shirt, and new pants, and me sitting there in the living room with no shoes tear up, tear up, I hate him even more." This shows how the younger brother gets spoiled while ...

      This piece is something we see over and over again the theme of two complete opposite background people wanting to be together. This piece is a little bit more complex than the typical love story as there are two women that had been in love with the same guy who passed away. One thing that was interesting was that they both had the same name and both liked the same man but were complete opposites. Isabel Luberza was a white woman who was the wife of Ambrosio, and because of the times was held at a higher standard and more of a "perfect" woman since she was white and of wealth. On the other hand we have Isabel la Negra who was a black woman and the mistress of Ambrosio and like most people of color at this time was looked down upon and was thought poorly of since she was the mistress. This piece wasn't very quite about the fact of how race was a big part of the culture and how people of the minority group, i.e not white were looked down upon and not treated equal. It...

      This film was one of the more interesting ones we've watched this semester as the story behind the film is very intricate. Throughout the piece there is many symbols and themes that make the movie so enjoyable. Elza the main character tracking down her father is the main plot of the movie and makes the person watching the movie want him to be exactly what Elza is looking for. Once she finally finds him he is not what Elza was hoping which was a curve ball in the film. Elza's father doesn't even realize that Elza is his daughter and it doesn't even really phase him. I feel like her mother foreshadowed the entire piece as she did not want her daughter going to find her father. I feel like she know that Elza's father wouldn't want anything to do with her. Elza needing the closure made her curious and went on the mission to find her father. To make matters worth her father doesn't even have a good reasoning for why Elza can't be his daughter and that i...

    This piece left me rather confused after reading, I feel like the piece has a deeper meaning that I am unable to see at first glance. Throughout the piece the boy has to become more and more mature in order to provide for himself. The ship in the piece seems to be a symbol of the boys maturity as he becomes more mature the ship in his dreams becomes more and more realistic. This story reminds me of the boy who cried wolf as the little boy is looking for people to believe him so much but is unable to get them to believe him. He can not convince them that the chair is killing people when they sit in it. Personally I wouldn't believe someone who was telling me a chair was magically killing people unless I saw it. This story shows the young child's faith in his beliefs. I was not able to really tell the difference between the child's dream and reality. I found it kind of odd how the author made the entire piece only a few sentences. This made it rather difficult to read as ...

    This film is like the traditional story/movie we've been reading about all year where a couple cannot be together due to their socioeconomic status. Asha in the film seems like she can do whatever she wants and is kind of careless with what she does.  As this theme come up so often in the works we analysis I feel like it is important for us to make sure we do not let our class structure keep two people apart. I feel that so many of the pieces that we have looked at have had this theme as this was a very common issue in these times in the Caribbean. Just because Roger was an African American doesn't mean Asha shouldn't be allowed to be with him. So prior to watching this film I did not know what a Moko Jumbie was, which I learned is something very important to Caribbean culture. It's funny to see in these pieces where there are two people who cannot be together how they are completely fine being together but the only thing that is stopping them is typically the cultu...

      This short story could not be more relevant in today's climate. The story is a dialogue between a grandma and her granddaughter and the granddaughter visiting Barbados for the first time coming from New York. When the granddaughter lands in Barbados she is instantly shocked by the sights and sounds as it is vastly different than New York. Her grandmother seems to care about the skin color of her grandchildren which is an interesting issue as typically grandparents don't care how old their grandchildren look or what their grandchildren do. You can tell her that her grandma respects people of lighter skin tone more than people of darker skin tone and looks higher of people with a lighter skin tone. In the piece the granddaughter talks about how she beat up a white girl at school and a first her grandmother is taken back by this as that is something that would never happen in Barbados. Unfortunately this is a common theme we see in the Caribbean literature, the th...

      Documentary it talks a lot about how the Caribbean culture is formed off of the music they listen to. You can see throughout the documentary music involved in every part of their life, whether it be through church traditions or normal day-to-day life music influences them. Not only is music used for cultural reasons but it is also used for them to express their emotions. Music is like a second religion to the people of the Caribbean they use music to gather as it is typically a happy activity that brings a community together. In the documentary one of the natives of the Caribbean says how music makes them stronger how it connects them. Music is something that the United States really has never used as a way to culturally connect as we do not have a uniform style of music that all Americans listen to. I was shocked to find out that the music is able to even have teams of people work even faster and even more efficient while listening to music. The importance of music...

      This piece is a common theme we seen throughout the semester that a sense of loneliness does not bother some people. Mr. Farley seems to be completely okay with the fact that he will be alone as he has never really had much interaction with his family. It seems that his loneliness stemmed after his sisters death there was no one when he came home anymore. His parallel of the sea makes him realize that he cannot take anything that he has with him it really has nothing to lose. One very important line in this piece that stuck out to me was when he said, "do you not understand how being left alone can be real kindness?". This shows how some people enjoy being alone and find peace in the fact that they are able to escape everyone and just be with themselves. I feel like the light in the title has some meaning, that as much as some people want to be alone there is always some light that makes them happy. Age in this piece is a very important part as when people tend to g...

      The story blackness was a very interesting story to me as it is a story that battles with depression during a time where it was not widely talked about. Blackness is a representation of depression in the story,  the narrator is trapped in the sense of blackness and is unable to find joy. Throughout the story the mother battles depression but her daughter is able to be that little bit of light that she needs to find her way out of the darkness. This is important because it shows that there's always a light at the end of the tunnel for someone battling depression. This piece is a change in pace as most of the pieces we have read deal with fitting into social settings rather than fitting into one's own body. I feel like it is important for this topic to be discussed as a lot of people shy away from it at this time. The use of blackness as a metaphor for depression I feel like really makes the piece flow nicely and make depression a more tangible object rather than...

      In this film we see how the prostitution industry in the Dominican is exploited to tourists. It is talked about in the movie have the need for prostitution is not there for women but the only reason that it exists is the fact that there are men looking for prostitutes. In places throughout the world not only the Caribbean women are forced for economical reasons into prostitution and unfortunately most of the time they get stuck in this lifestyle. One of the worst parts of this for the woman is the fact that they have to report to a so-called manager who takes a lot of the money they earned from there "work" and are left with little to no money for themselves. The woman that are a part of the prostitution have been basically reduced down to objects and stripped of their basic human rights. We'd like to believe that this does not go on in the United States but unfortunately it does. Prostitution is a big issue in the United States which is unfortunately powered by an ...