Response to Course material dec 11

I was very pleased to begin discussing Ceremony as a class.  I will admit that I had a lot of unanswered questions after reading the book.  Though I still do, the group discussion by the class is helping a great deal in understanding the aspects of the book that were previously confusing me.  It is very helpful to have someone as knowledgeable about the Laguna Pueblo culture as Ms Holmes helping to guide the discussion.  In the vast majority of cases, our literary history has done very little to help us to identify and explain the complex and abstract imagery utilized by Silko.  The countless motif's exposed in the just first few pages, such as the idea of circles and reciprocity, colors of all sorts and their importance (yellow especially) and the theme of interlinked cultures I never picked up on.  I don't think that is attributed to me reading poorly a first time, but rather I honestly think I didn't really have the tools or understanding of the book after a first read to pick up on them.  However this is exactly what makes the close read so rewarding.  I have an epiphany with every few pages, and the story makes more sense and I see countless links between events the more I read.

Close Reading Dec 11th

http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2009/08/24/090824fa_fact_sedaris

Details:
The details are Sedaris are very effective in achieving his goal of highly comedic editorial writing.  Right away the piece starts off with him arguing with his father over who has truly been to Australia. Though obviously they have both physically been to Australia, their differences in the belief of what Australia really is leads to irreparable schism at a dinner with family members they rarely see.  I found this whole situation to be very funny, the fact that they are arguing over a purely subjective idea that one has no chance of persuading the other to believe.  Sedaris also describes Australia as Canada in a thong, something that made me actually laugh when reading.  I was equally amused by an incident that involved them stopped in Australia investigating road kill on the side of the road.  These details, interspersed with more serious subject matter of Sedaris's journeys, are highly comedic and make the piece of reading enjoyable and certainly a form of high comedy.

Diction:
Sedaris uses typical diction to describe his adventures in Australia.  He certainly has no desire to create any disconnect between reader and writer and his diction reflects this.  Occasionally he will use elevated diction when describing especially comedic or important events of his stories, seen the use of the words "shodiness" and "constitute".  He writes in a way that a typical reader of the new yorker would easily grasp.  I was most drawn to his use of local diction, the word "shout" which carries an entirely different meaning in Australia than in America.  Shout is a verb that means to treat, the example used by Sedaris is "She shouted us to coffee".  After explaining the use of the word, and then later using the word in the piece as if its unique colloquial use was natural for him was very interesting and showed to me a level of sophistication in his writing.

Imagery:
Imagery is constantly used throughout the piece.  What is notable about its use however is the comedic way in which it is used. His imagery is explained/created in a way that is funny.  He takes funny situations and further increases the hilarity for the reader by creating images in the readers mind with funny details.  A good example is seen when he describes the roadkill that he comes across, and his attempt to identify it.  "I was surprised by the shoddiness of its coat. It was as if you’d bred a rabbit with a mule. Then there was the tail, which reminded me of a lance.  What was it actually, a teenage kangaroo?"  This absurd attempt to describe this animal certainly doesn't help the reader to get a good idea of what Sedaris saw, but in this piece that isn't his point.  He is using imagery, or rather attempts at imagery, to increase the comedic nature of the situations that he describes.

sunday dec 4th open prompt

1970. Choose a character from a novel or play of recognized literary merit and write an essay in which you (a) briefly describe the standards of the fictional society in which the character exists and (b) show how the character is affected by and responds to those standards. In your essay do not merely summarize the plot.

            The society in which a character exists is one of the most powerful features that shape his or her development, especially when the character is fundamentally opposed to all that their society is built upon.  This is the case in The Awakening, in which the protagonist Edna finds her own beliefs and actions to be unacceptable and even treacherous in her society.  The strict sexual divisions and discrimination of upper class New Orleans society cause Edna to initially  shrug off her familial and societal responsibilities and question her reason for existence, to which she cannot find a suitable answer.  

            Edna is married into a family of deep Creole heritage, and thus surrounded by such a culture.  The nature of Creole society in Louisiana during this period is one of extreme wealth and luxury.  The wealthiest men are typically businessmen who extend their hospitality to other well-to-do members of their society.  Edna is an integral part of the middle of a large chain of her husband’s associates and friends.  The image of her family is of utmost importance to her husband of Creole heritage, and the ideas of a dominant male figure in the family are the norm with no exceptions.   Infidelity by the male member’s is often ignored while female infidelity is seen to lecherous.  The woman exists primarily to serve the husband and portray his essence to the public at large.  As for Edna’s specific position in Creole society, she is expected to run the household and ensure that the image of her family is spotlessly displayed to those around them.   Whether this be throwing elaborate house parties or forging shallow relationships with wives of her husband’s business associates, she is expected to perform any task.  As a result Edna receives little attention or regard from her husband, rather than occasional lavish gifts that are meant to keep her attention.  Edna’s position as a mother, though she isn’t supposed to directly raise her children, she is certainly in charge of their societal upbringing and in ensuring that they understand their position in the world. 

            Edna reacts to this in quite possibly the most abrupt manner possible. She shrugs of every task and expectation that society has of her and begins to embody something extremely radical for the time, feminism.  Tasks such as hosting lavish house parties and ensuring a positive image for the public are ignored, and she often refuses to attend parties that she is invited to.  As for her children, her fundamental insecurity about her life result in her losing all affection for them.  She doesn’t feel love or a sense to protect them, a shocking revelation for a mother.  Traditionally seen as the most fundamental of feminine responsibilities, he choice to ignore the raising of her children defines her feminist beliefs, specifically that she isn’t to be tied down by the out of date characteristic of motherhood.   Her most blatant disregard for accordance to her society’s norms is seen in her act of adultery.  After years of disregard, she no longer feels any affection for her husband, and partakes in an affair with a close friend of hers.  This provides a liberating effect for Edna, and inspires her to demand her independence.  She purchases her own home and attempts to move out on her husband.  Further perpetuating this move is her husband’s reaction, based out of concern for his image by having his wife disobey society’s demands.  Most significant of all however is Edna’s choice to take her own life.  By doing so she shed’s all unwanted responsibility and fully escapes the grasp of the norms and demands of Creole society,  thus actualizing her awakening to feminist ideals. 

            In a society that is so strictly rigid and demanding of Edna, is brutally clear that her actions that are in complete conflict with such a society cannot continue.  Her intellectual awakening to sexual social disparagements as well as the frivolous nature of her life drove her to reject all that she was meant to embody, which defined her actions as freeing and enlightening.