Digital Media Story

It was an interesting experience to interview my grandmother for this. There were so many things I didn't know about her and I felt ashamed for not asking her in the first place. I am not the most technological person so it was a challenge but I was proud of the end result.  I give my permission for this to be used in the E book.

Fictive Fragments of a Father and Son

I felt so conflicted while reading this story. I can understand the narrator's anger towards his father and how his father chooses not to acknowledge what happened to him. As human beings in order to survive we often choose to accept our fate and bring out the best in whatever situations we are placed in. The narrator never really sees that maybe his father truly needs to believe that racism isn't real or that he was able to become successful without  discrimination because believing he is unwanted in this country would kill him mentally.

"I am American he says to himself. I am glad we won...He repeats his mantra over and over. He learns to believe" (Pg 352.)

In this section the narrator kind of touches on the emotions his father felt after the war and how he had to convince himself he was happy to prove that he was American. I also feel as though the children of immigrants, myself included, are too hard on our parents. Many children born to immigrant parents are either born in America or come to the United States at a very young age so they are raised more American than anything. When children of immigrant parents grow up in American culture there seems to be a huge barrier between cultures. Children are unable to understand the traditions of their parents and parents don't understand the attitude/impatience their children have towards their culture. It really is a lose/lose situation.

I think that sexuality was large role in the story, predominantly how American culture plays a role in sexuality. When the narrator talks about finding the Playboy in his parent's room he says, "And so, like many other American boys, I discover my sexuality in the presence of a picture. And, like, many other Americans boys, I do not think of the color of the woman's skin" (Pg 353) Right in this paragraph he makes sure to put that he discovered his sexuality like other American boys and like other American boys he makes sure that he is attracted to white women. Her beauty is evident because she is white and she is more beautiful than other women because of her skin.

Smoke Signals

This film is important is so many ways. The first is that it was produced, written, and is acted out by an all Native American cast. This story is not whitewashed by media. This is raw emotion from a Native American perspective. The film even pokes fun at Native American stereotypes (ex. Native men are strong and stoic.) I also found that this film provided me with more knowledge about Native American culture in general.

One of the themes I saw throughout the movie was the hair was presented. Victor even says that an "Indian isn't anything without his hair." Which is interesting because Victor's father had cut all his hair off in his grief. I think we can see what kind of  opinion Victor has of his father from that one line. Victor also criticizes Thomas for keeping his hair in braids. He says that hair should be "loose and flowing." Honestly hair was a huge importance in the movie. When someone cuts their hair it can signify that they are becoming a new person by cutting this part of themselves, which we see when Victor cuts his hair with a knife. Victor is getting rid of the person he was to make room for the man he is becoming. 

The relationship between Victor and Thomas was interesting. The point made in class about Victor's name meaning conqueror, and Thomas' name meaning twin was so compelling. It  was like Victor and Thomas were the same person in the end, both children born of ash and flame. The relationships that both boys had with Victor's father was interesting to say the least. Thomas' flashbacks always involved good times with Victor's father whereas Victor only had sad memories with his father. 

I also thought the themes of magic was prevalent to the story. Arnold Joseph's obsession with magic was peculiar because the only type of magic he talked about was the type that dealt with things disappearing but never about reappearing. He waned to make all the bad things in his life disappear. He also wanted to disappear. So it could be that Arnold Joseph saw himself as a bad person for the people in his life.

Sandra Cisneros "My Name'

"In English my name means hope. In Spanish it means too many letters. It means sadness, it means waiting. It is like the number nine. A muddy color. It is the Mexican records my father plays on Sunday mornings when he is shaving, songs like sobbing."

In the first stanza Esperanza compares her name to unhappiness. I find it interesting that she notes the  American meaning of her name and how it sounds better in English. It could symbolize the inner conflict of her culture versus America. Her name symbolizes her waiting for something better. I've read that the number nine can symbolize judgement or finality. It's important to make the connection between the number nine and how Esperanza feels as though her name represents finality. 


"It was my great-grandmother's name and now it is mine. She was a horse woman too, born like me in the Chinese year of the horse--which is supposed to be bad luck if you're born female-but I think this is a Chinese lie because the Chinese, like the Mexicans, don't like their women strong.
My great-grandmother. I would've liked to have known her, a wild, horse of a woman, so wild she wouldn't marry. Until my great-grandfather threw a sack over her head and carried her off. Just like that, as if she were a fancy chandelier. That's the way he did it. And the story goes she never forgave him. She looked out the window her whole life, the way so many women sit their sadness on an elbow. I wonder if she made the best with what she got or was she sorry because she couldn't be all the things she wanted to be. Esperanza. I have inherited her name, but I don't want to inherit her place by the window."

This sections touches on the misogynist attitudes Latin men have towards women.Women are viewed as objects, for example Esperanza's great grandmother was carried off like a fancy chandelier.  It also introduces the character of her great grandmother, which is where she gets her name from.  I feel as though Esperanza sees herself in her great-grandmother. The theme of superstition, which is also huge in Latin culture is also touched upon.




"At school they say my name funny as if the syllables were made out of tin and hurt the roof of your mouth. But in Spanish my name is made out of a softer something, like silver, not quite as thick as sister's name Magdalena--which is uglier than mine. Magdalena who at least- -can come home and become Nenny. But I am always Esperanza. would like to baptize myself under a new name, a name more like the real me, the one nobody sees. Esperanza as Lisandra or Maritza or Zeze the X. Yes. Something like Zeze the X will do."

I feel like Esperanza is the definitely a wild horse of a woman. She is flamboyant and extreme in her personality. She does not choose tame name to baptize herself with, instead she chooses one that almost completely erases the name Esperanza.

A Father

The themes of "A Father" include irony, religious perspective, clash of cultures, control and the lack of it, arranged marriage, lack of intimacy, old world vs. new world, generation gap, gender expectations, patriarchy, and superstition. It's important to note the relationship Mr. Bhowmick has with his chosen goddess, Kali. She symbolizes all that we cannot understand in life which clashes with Mr. Bhowmick's desperate need to control life. She also symbolizes Mr. Bhowmick's hatred of women, especially the women he cannot control. It is ironic that Mr. Bhowmick chose this goddess to worship because she is a woman and represents chaos at it’s core.

The relationship between Mr. Bhowmick and his daughter Babli is something that I found very interesting. This passage was very telling. “Balbi was not the child he would have chosen as his only heir...Babli could never comfort him. She wasn’t womanly or tender the way that unmarried girls had been in the wistful days of his adolescence...her accomplishments didn’t add up to real femininity. Not the kind that had given him palpitations.” (Pg 341) Mr. Bhowmick’s makes his disdain for his daughter quite evident. Mr. Bhowmick probably never showed Babli affection as a child, which in my opinion, gave her a negative attitude towards men. Babli is outspoken and fierce, more like her mother than her father. This is also why Mr. Bhowmick has such a resentment for his daughter. It is also interesting to note what exactly Mr. Bhowmick means by real femininity. His idea of femininity is constantly challenged by the women in his life.

The way I felt about Mr. Bhowmick was how I felt about the narrator when I read Lolita, to a certain extent. I couldn’t stand his character and I found him pathetic but I felt so bad for him. He was not comfortable in his life. He didn’t think he was American enough and now he didn’t belong in his home country either. He states that he hates Ranchi and he would never go back. He cannot find home anywhere because both places can’t fulfill him.  Maybe this is why he cannot love Babli and where his anxiety stems from.  

The themes of racism and sexism are intermingled when Mr. Bhowmick thinks about the gender and race of his grand child. He only refers to his grandchild as grandson and never once thinks about the possibility of Babli having a girl. He prays that the man who impregnated Babli is white and envisions his grandson “brown and buttery-skinned.” He even suggests that Babli must have been raped or yielded to passion by a married man, which he does nothing about. He doesn’t even consider that Babli would get artificially inseminated because what it comes down to is that being raped or assaulted would be better than having a baby on your own in his mind.

I Would Remember

"I Would Remember" tells the story of a young Filipino who leaves his village to go to America. The excerpt is told through a series of deaths that affect the narrator  in terms of how he views death. The themes of the story include death, loss of innocence, light vs. darkness, intimacy, friendship, race, and nature. Bulosan’s use of nature to describe events is unforgettable and at times foreshadow events in his life. “I saw the fleeting shadow of a small bird across the sky followed by a big bat. The small bird disappeared in the periphery of moonlight and darkness, shrieking fiercely when the bat caught up with it somewhere there beyond the range of my vision.” (Pg. 28) One could say that the bird and bat represent the endless cycle of life and death. It could also be said that the bird  represents  the narrator’s mother and the bat represents death come to get her. The narrator brings up nature to precede a death once again with the death of the carabao. “I remember that there was a frightening thunderclap somewhere in the world, and I looked up suddenly toward the eastern sky and saw a wide arc of vanishing rainbow.” (Pg. 29) I really enjoyed the author’s use of foreshadowing through weather.

The death I found the most interesting was the death of Marco. I really liked the contrast the narrator  provided between himself and Marco. I felt that the narrator at times thought he was better than Marco because he wasn't simple and uneducated. I also felt that the narrator was jealous of Marco and how simple his view of the world is.This quote in particular stuck out to me, “Yet he was sincere and honest in whatever he did or said to me.” (Pg 30) The narrator uses specific words for a reason. I don’t think the narrator is insincere or dishonest but maybe the narrator feels these things about himself. There are many words he could have used to describe Marco but he chose those two specific words.

I found Crispin’s death the most beautiful. I do think that the relationship between the narrator and Crispin was more than platonic. The narrator’s comparison of Crispin to the moon was beautiful. This quote stuck out to me the most. “He was very gentle and there was something luminous about him, like the strange light that flashes in my mind when I sometimes think of the hills of home.” (Pg 30) I loved how the narrator had Crispin tied in with his idea of home. I thought it was very poetic. The death that affected me the most was the death of Leroy. It was very graphic and political. It represented the race tensions in America. I also think this was a good depiction of the attitude America had towards immigrants.