The Struggle of Literacy...

This week's readings were about people having a chance of learning to read to gain knowledge of the world and to themselves. The readings were "Learning to Read and Growing in Knowledge" by Frederick Douglass, "Exercises in the Restoration of History" by John Ross, and "Frankie Mae" by Jean Wheeler-Smith.

As I was reading these three stories, they all have something in common: The people who are not white don't have the right to have knowledge because of their race. Today anybody can read but all these stories were taken in the past. In the first reading by Frederick Douglass, he talks about himself as a young slave boy living in the plantation with his family. He then talks about the mistress he became friends with and discovered about learning to read to gain knowledge about the world. He learned to read by the mistress of the house by reading the Bible as his very first book but along the way he also learned how to write by his white friends surprisingly as well as they encouraged him that someday he will be free. One day as he was learning to read by the mistress, the husband came in and he was shocked to find Doug reading and then proceeded to warn his wife about the dangers of letting a black man read. A few years later, the mistress changed her kind ways and became a monster and it was a clear understanding for Doug about the rules of slavery making as he believes, "Nature made them friends, but slavery makes them enemies."

The second story was about some cigarworkers in Tampa, Florida. They really want to learn to read but they have no choice but to work all day with little pay. They also explained that they want to hear more stories from many famous authors from the readers' who were paid by the workers themselves to read all day long. Similar to the first story, they were forced to work but at the same time, their readers were never ever return to read to them again because the workers were not allowed to have knowledge because of their race.

The last story is a really sad story about the consequences of knowing knowledge. The story is about a family who were working in a plantation in Mississippi. A girl who was interested in learning more knowledge goes to school while her family works in the cotton fields. Her name was Frankie Mae and she was full of life and joy. She loved reading and writing as well as taking
responsibility in taking care of her family but all the love and joy ended when she faced the Mr. White. Throughout the year, Frankie kept a record about how much cotton they made and should be paid for but Mr. White didn't give them what they really should have. In response, her father apoligized and White cursed Frankie because of her being smarter and also because of her race. Since then, Frankie never really recovered from that and never been the same again which her father has witnessed it all. In the end, after the tragic end of Frankie, the workers decided to stand up for themselves and go on a workers strike.

Through all the three stories, I felt deep sadness for those who either had no chance or some chance at reading. Its not fair for what they did to them or treat them but that endless hope to escape the harsh reality by reading is what keep's them going. These readings also compare to the lecture about the church and the nobles vs. the peasants in the feudal era.

All Consuming Images...

I know that this blog is late but at least I get to post it anyway.

So I got around to reading Steven Ewen's(a.k.a. my professor himself) book All Consuming Images and he talks about the topic of "image". In the required reading that the class is required to do, we were suppose to read the first three sections of the book. It talks about the definition of style, how it forms, and what it means to several individuals in their own life experience.

There were a lot of point of views from Hunter College students that Ewen had class back in the late 1990s. When reading some of their explanations on style, I also had the same feelings too except for the ones who really care about appearance. Some of the readings I read about talk about if style is important for who you are or because everyone else is doing it. To me, style can come in any form as long as its you and not a copy of someone else. For example, there was a time a few years ago when the old style of bellbottoms came to life once again for a short time and my sister was addicted to it. I was simply looking at her new look with distaste and wonder why she must go to on to become a monkey, by monkey I mean "Monkey see, monkey do." It didn't look that great and of course I was right when I said to myself that it wouldn't last for so long which it did.

I can see how style can affect people's self esteem, some want to appear confident while others question what style is to them and others blend in with their surrounding environment. In the end, everyone, even me, are still finding out what our identity or what style were choosing.

Fahrenheit 451...

Well I just finished reading Ray Bradbury's "Fahrenheit 451" and it was pretty short. The story was about a fireman named Guy Montag who starts fires when it comes to burning books and he always enjoyed it for 10 years. He just loves burning books but never really knew why he loves it or even why he's doing it until he met Clarisse McClellan one fateful night. She was an odd girl who thinks and wonders about a lot of things especially when she talks about what kind of content are in those burning books. Its because of these two things that later Montag started to question the reason why people started burning books and why others try to hide them in a world that people fear them and prefer watching walls like his wife Mildred.

After reading the book, I feel as though its much like the world it is today. Not so many people read books unless its required or the option of recommendation. When Mildred was described as a woman who takes sleeping pills and watch the walls I thought of some people who are like that as well. My sister always watches TV and always laughing her ass off which leaves me to think that she's becoming dumber and dumber. She never really thinks or wonders about the why, what, when, who, and the how about what's around her. Although it seems at times that the subject spoken about can be depressing at times and we just move on to something else. When I read the part when Montag was sitting with the ladies and hearing them say all those cruel things about their kids, husbands, and wars it really pissed me off. I sort of felt the same when my mother talks about the things about me like how I should be, the way I look like, and how I should act. Everytime she mentions me it really just pisses me off but unfortunately I seem to be a coward in afraid of saying something back like the former English professor Faber.

When it story came to the climax, Montag already changed himself from burning books to reading and understanding them. He began to wonder about the world he's living in and how society was working without books. When Montag came back to the firehouse after being sick, he was cornered by Captain Beatty about him hiding and reading the forbidden books. It was then that it was time to leave his old job and home behind when the firefighters came to Montag's house and forced him to burn his home. When he did that, Montag turned on them and killed Beatty and ran as far away as he can possibly go. Afterwards, the constant jets that flew over the city throughout the books started a war and everything that he knew was no more. He traveled with a group of leftover intellects who also read books and decided to join them. When the war was over, all the cities were destroyed and the people who changed Montag were gone but not forgotten. In the end, Montag and his group moved on to build a new world to start over with knowledge from the books they read.

I believe that Bradbury thinks books can change someone's thoughts and step away from the harsh reality that is life. This can be true but not everyone can agree because sometimes even watching TV can take your mind off things if you know what you're watching. As for how it relates to the lectures, a while ago the class watched a film called "Style Wars", which talks about the graffiti bombers in NYC back in the 80's. Some bombers like Cap and Seen paint the trains to take their name and spread it around the city to see their name just to show off their art and for people to know their name. Like the bombers, the book people in Fahrenheit 451 try to spread their ideals from the countless books they read like the Bible, Dickens, Shakespeare, and other well-known writers even if its against the law.

Overall the story is pretty interesting.

First time blogger...

Never really tried blogging before but I might get used to it.