No Name Woman by Maxine Kingston

For today, we were suppose to read "No Name Woman" by Maxine Kingston. Kingston was born in Stockton, California and her first language was Say Yup, which is a dialect of Cantonese. She learned a lot about story telling from her community which consisted of mainly Chinese from the same village that her family grew up in. This essay is about a girl trying to discover her Chinese heritage and background. It starts off with her mother telling her the story of the girl's aunt that she never knew of. Her mother tells her that her aunt had an arranged marriage and then her husband soon after left for America. When her husband was gone she ended up pregnant and the town knew that there was no way that it was her husband's baby. So the night she was suppose to deliver, the townspeople killed all of their family's livestock, tore up their yard, their house, and all of her aunt's belongings. She went on to have her baby that night. The next morning, the girl's mother went outside to get water from the well, where she seen the aunt and her newborn. She had committed suicide. No one in their family claims her or talks about her because she was considered a disgrace on them. So the family acts like she never existed and this is why the girl never knew she had an aunt. Her mother is deciding to tell her this story now because the little girl has started menstruating so she knows now that there is a possibility that she could end up pregnant. The mother wants the girl to know the consequences and what could happen to her if something like that ever happened. This leads the girl to try to figure out her and her family's past and her chinese heritage. She also tries to imagine what could have happened to her aunt. She believes that her aunt was raped and forced to have sex with some man and he got her pregnant. She does not believe that she was just sleeping around and cheating on her husband. The girl discovers alot about Chinese history, but she will never know for certain what happened with her aunt's life.

In Search of Our Mothers Gardens

Alice Walker wrote about the struggle of black women in her essay, "In Search of Our Mothers Gardens". She talks about all of the injustice and uncivil barbarity. The women she wrote about were, to her, pillars of what it meant to survive the struggles and obstacles they were presented with. Walker was ultimately trying to show the world the creativity of black women, but in turn made them seem crazy or insane. She talks about how these women were able to be creative during their time and women who could have been main characters during their time if it were not for all of the oppressions. She says that oppressions made it difficult and confusing for women to express themselves. I liked reading this essay, but I'm not sure if it was one of my favorites. If we have to write a paper on one of the essays that we read, I might write it on this essay.

Sherman Alexie

When I first decided to go see Sherman Alexie speak in Kenan Auditorium on Monday night, it was only because I was going to get extra credit somehow. I just knew this was going to be some type of boring lecture that was only interesting to people who were majoring in English or Creative writing. You know, this was going to be a lecture about how to become a famous author and such. But when I saw so many people there I thought a little bit different. Was this really going to be interesting or were all of these students here because their professor offered them extra credit as well? As soon as Mr. Alexie began to speak, I realized I had a made a good decision on coming to this. Let me just say, he really entertained me for an evening. I mean, he could definitely be considered a comedian over being a writer. He was so funny and spoke so well. I didn't realize though that he was just telling the story from the book he had written, about himself, while adding some other little things in there to relate to us as an audience. I had an amazing time and I wish he could've stood up there for hours and told his whole story. After hearing Sherman Alexie, I really want to go out and buy his books and writings. He was so interesting and never boring. The question and answer session was good too, but he did come off a little "full of himself" there in the end. He pretty much talked down and was a little rude to his biggest fan. But other than that it was a great time, I thought of it like a show. I would definitely be interested in hearing him speak again. Now it's time to write my paper so I can get my extra credit. :) I took really good notes too, so I hope this paper turns out how I want it to.

Our Next Short Essay

I am really glad that our next short essay can be done in a blog or written informally. I think that sometimes those types of writing are the best. It makes it so the writer can express themselves in any way they choose, especially being able to write how they would speak. The things we are suppose to write about are "Trifles" by Susan Glaspell, Lorraine Hansberry's "A Raisin in the Sun", and Frank Cordelle's photographic exhibit titled "The Century Project". We are suppose to discuss the images of women and how these "texts" define women and men. I am very excited to see Frank Cordelle's photo exhibit on Wednesday. I think that this will be a great experience for everyone. I am disappointed that UNC Wilmington decided to remove the photos of the females under the age of 18. I think that those photos would be most informing and appreciated by the students because we have been through things that some of those females might have. I am glad that we get to have a question and answer session with Frank Cordelle because I'm sure I will have many questions for him after viewing his photos. I already have some questions in mind to ask him, but I want to think of more. I think I will like doing this next short paper because it concerns women and how they are viewed. That subject is very important to me.