questions for shteyengart's 'mother tongue'

hi all,

here are some questions about the shteyengart story we are discussing tomorrow.

1. For the Shteyengart-character (not narrator), what is home? what is home for the Shteyengart-narrator?

2. What is home?

3. How do "alien" and "Mother" work in the story? As in, how are both terms, independently, reimagined or redefined?

4. Where does the text demonstrate Russia immigrating out of Russia?

5. Does the text have a black-and-white, compartmentalized notion of assimilation and/or acculturation?

Discussion questions for "Joebell and America"

1. Joebell cites Al Jolson, James Brown and Frank Sinatra as some of his sources for learning about American culture. Is it possible to learn how to be an American from television?

2. According to Joebell what does it mean to be "a real American"?

3. In the end, why does Joebell consider himself a hero even though his attempt to make it to America failed?

4."Really, in truth, I know America so much, I feel American. Is just that I aint born there." (230)

What does this say about his connection to his home country? Does the heavy presence of American pop culture in Trinidad effect the way Joebell identifies himself?

5. What effect is achieved by telling part one of the story from an outsiders point of view? Does it make Joebell's character appear more real or more distant? Did you experience a shift in opinion of Jobell's character when the story switched to a first person narrative?

6. How did the airport questioning help to create sympathy for Joebell while creating disdain towards the guards who were enforcing the law? What ironic or humorous undertnes are depicted in this section of the story?

Questions for Who's Irish?

1. How does the story being told from the perspective of the grandmother impact your view on who is in the right and who is in the wrong in this situation? Does it make you empathize more with the grandmother?

2. This story presents the issue of the cultural gap that exists within an interracial family, but also presents the issue of the generational gap that exists among many parents and their children, regardless of race. Both are deep-rooted in a lack of communication. Which do you think is easier to triumph?

3. How is it that by the end of the story, John’s brothers are miserable living with their mother, John is depressed without a job, and Natalie is exhausted with nobody to turn to? Do you think the author was trying to prove anything by ending the story with Bess and Sophie’s grandmother as the only two people happy?

4. The grandmother’s parenting style is reminiscent of Amy Chua’s, better known as the “Tiger Mom” who caused controversy earlier in the year, when she wrote a piece for the WSJ titled “Why Chinese Moms are Superior”, revealing the practices of some Chinese parents who raised stereotypically “successful” kids. Both parenting styles are based on strict child rearing to achieve the specific goal at hand. Ultimately, they get their children to achieve the goal, but they completely disregard the child’s self-esteem. Does the effectiveness of this approach make it acceptable? Link to article: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704111504576059713528698754.html

5. Deciding which parenting techniques work best for your family is a challenge. Naturally, a parent turns to his or her own experiences as a child to decide what techniques worked well and what techniques didn’t work well, just as Natalie did. Natalie and her mother turned out to have opposing views, as is the case among most parents and their children. Did Natalie cross the line of disrespect by kicking her mother out of her house, or was her defending of her family admirable?

Discussion Questions for The Dew Breaker

1. Why do you think the preacher keeps referring to his wife's death with such great detail, in sermon and in thought?

2. Anne is upset with the preacher for spending all of his time talking about the government and trying to turn people against them. She then explains how he walked out on his own family, Why do you think he devoted his time away from his family and instead, to activism?

3. On page 216, Rosalie is introduced. Do you find it strange that a government as corrupt and oppressive as this allows women to hold any kind of superior rank, let alone any rank, in the Volunteers?

4. Had the preacher not attacked the fat man with the splintered leg of the chair, do you think he would have been released from the jail?

5. What kind of political statement do you think Danticat is trying to make in writing this novel?

Response Questions for dew breaker

Below you will find Response questions for Dew Breaker. Initially theses questions should have been posted for last class 11/22/11.

1- Directly from the start of the book, Danticat introduces several themes to the reader. What are some of those themes?

2-Do you think it would make a difference if the story is told differently from one point of view? How does the many viewpoints affect the story?

3-How are the characters in the story similar or different? Do you see any connections between any of them with Ka or her dad thus far?

4-Do you think Danticat is trying to indirectly imply something with the inter-related story lines?

5-Why do you suppose the author tells the story from different point of views?

Discussion Questions for The Dew Breaker

1) Do you think the dew breaker described by Beatrice is the same man who tortured her back home in Haiti? Can the Dew Breaker be seen as a metaphor to represent her attempt to escape from her past? (pg. 131-132)

2) In "The Funeral Singer" the speaker of the story encounters other people who have left Haiti like herself. Each character leaves Haiti in an attempt to escape from something, however, once they arrive in United States, they continually share their story. Since these characters are constantly retelling and reliving the horrid experiences that drove them from Haiti, have they truly escaped?

3)"'Isn't it amazing? Jackie Kennedy can go to Haiti anytime she wants but we can't," (pg.179) What does this statement imply in regards to the political and cultural aspects of Haitian culture during this time?

4) What could have been some of the "political" factors that may have caused Monsieur to Christophe to not recognize Michel as his son?

5) What does Romain mean when he says that the president used to be a short tailed monkey, but is now a long tailed one? Why does he think this?

Discussion Questions to The Dew Breaker

1. The technique that Danticat uses to write the story is using different narrators to tell their separate piece that eventually unfolds at the end. On page 125, Beatrice says "Everything happens when its meant to happen." This is a quote that implies destiny. Does this quote apply to the book as a whole? Do things in the book happen when they are "meant" to happen? If so, which events within the unfolding of the character's lives seem like fate?

2. Do you think the portrayal of the characters, particularly the seamtress, living with terror and having it never go away is the case with all of the immigrants who have experienced this?

3. Aline thinks that she "had never imagined that people like Beatice existed, men and women whose tremendous agonies filled every blank space in their lives" (137). Is the way that Aline thinks of these men and women in this passage similar to how Danticat raises up the other characters in the novel?

4. Beatice, the seamtress, tries to reinvent herself by forgetting her haunting past. Do you think she is successful in doing so or has she failed?

5. Do you think that most of the characters unconsciously or voluntarily create a tiny piece from Haiti to incorporate into their lives in America?

6. Why does Beatrice live close to the prison guard knowing that he tortured her back in Haiti? How does Beatrice's experience add to the novel?

seems bleak

hi,

if anyone was paying attention about the two pretty bleak books i mentioned today you can find more information on them here, plus a semi-comical video of zizek snorting on charlie rose (he says some very smart things about OWS during the interview; worth a watch).

important to note that these are not 'apocalyptic' works at all, if anything they diagnose why much of the western world (and countries that operate on the free market system and/or have economies inextricably linked to 1st-world economies, so everyone) finds itself drowning. so don't feel bad. the world is generally ok.

slavoj zizek - living in the end times

http://www.powells.com/biblio/1-9781844675982-4

chris hedges - the world as it is: dispatches on the myth of human progress

http://www.powells.com/biblio/1-9781568586403-1

slavoj zizek on charlie rose:

http://www.charlierose.com/view/interview/11966

peas

Discussion questions for Lone Star.

1. John Sayles writes Lone Star in a way that White southerners and Latino's in Frontera, Texas live separately but a lot of their history is intertwined. Why does he connect Sam Deeds and Pilar Cruz through incest to bring the story together? Why couldn't the tension in Frontera have been strictly historical?

2. Throughout the movie there are historically references made about Native Americans, Black slaves, and Mexicans. How are these groups used in the story line to make the situation in Frontera contemporary?

3. What are the themes used in this film? Does the film succeed in getting the point across to audiences?

Response to Baca's Poem

I would like to respond to something we touched on only briefly in class, and that's the aggressive tone used throughout Baca's poem. Although many of us harbor sympathy for Baca's perceptive, I think it's important to look at the work's rhetoric objectively. And to me, doing so reveals the shortcoming of the poem's conceit.

Anger in poetry can be expressed more effectively with subtlety and metaphor. Baca, perhaps through his rage, rejects the traditional poetic tools available to the poet and plunges into a rant, one that does not defend itself against its own emotions. The question of audience comes into play; however, strong poetry should be felt by myriad peoples, regardless of racial and ethnic backgrounds. This is where Baca fails--by his dehumanizing the antagonist while refusing to relent his heated tone, he loses his credibility as historian/poet.

We can look at someone like Matrin Espada as an example of a poet using the finest poetic rhetoric and techniques to compound a critical tone in a way that can touch all readers, mostly because it attempts, through the Hispanic immigrants plight, to reach deeper into the human emotions the lie there. This gives the poem a touch of the universal and therefore makes it more lasting, even more accessible. Here is a link to Espada's poem, an ode to Hispanic workers killed in the 9/11 attacks: http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poem/177383

Espada uses a very American and universal tragedy as a means of exploring the more specific cultural narrative of latino workers in the food and restaurant industry. Rather than pushing the subject on the reader, he invites the reader into his world and, not unlike Virgil to Dante, leads us through the poem as a trustworthy and grounded voice.

Sure, we can understand Baca's frustration, even share it with him. However, it's important to ask the question: Would someone alien to these politics, say someone form China or Lithuania, trust a voice like Baca's?

-Ocean

Willie Perdomo, Jimmy SantiagoBaca, Sandra Maria Esteves

Perdomo's "Nigger -Reecan Blues"

1. Why do you think there is an anxiety about being fully "Boricua"? Why can't being half Cuban and half Chinese enough?

2. This piece raises the topic of racial identity inside a minority. Why do you think an already-oppressed minority would possess a tendency towards discrimination within it's own community?

3. What is the importance of the vernacular in this piece? Why strategic use does switching between the conventional and the vernacular offer for the poem's reading?

Baca, "So Mexicans Are Taking Jobs from Americans"


1. This poem employs a simple language, often using rhetorical questions in its presentation of stereotypes impose don Mexican immigrants. Why do you think the poet chose this kind of language, this tone?

2. I am most intrigued by the depiction of the "leader" (who I think we can assume is white). He is described as "asthmatic", "turtle heavy", with a "nest of wrinkles" and a "paddling" tongue. In other words, he is dehumanized. Do you think this aggressive approach is in retaliation t the dehumanization of Mexican immigrants? If so, do you think it is successful in this poem? Can we trust a poet whose conceit is overtly one-sided?


Esteves, "South Bronx Testimonial"

1. In this poem, the American dream is crushed by its own landscape; the city is a place of "despair" where young ladies are crushed into shapes of old women. But as the poem progresses, the poet forces her native land in the work, the stark New York landscapes literally breaks off with each word and a lush and bountiful world emerges from beneath. What does this say about the meaning of "home" for the Hispanic American immigrant? Is the memory of home a place of refuge in the mind or can it be a tantalizing impossibilities, especially for immigrants who, for myriad reasons, cannot return to their native countries?

-Ocean Vuong

Latino/Nuyorican (New York-Puerto Rican) poets:Miguel Algarin,Aurora Levins Morales, Pedro Pietri

Raphael Tufiño, Cortadores de Caña (Cane cutters) Linocut 21x29cm

Miguel Algarin, "Latero Story" Questions:

Language/Style:

Miguel Algarin intentionally uses explicit technical language throughout the poem. He uses this explicit use of explicit language with a complete abandon of standard syntax. (he refuses both punctuation and capitalization) I have two questions about this stylistic choice.

1.What is the purpose of his coupling of complex multisyllabic words with lack of formal grammar. (ex. dry blood infectious diseases/ hypothermic needles tissued/heroin water drops pilfered in/ slimy greases hazardous waste materials)

2. How does this form, relate to his interpretation of american success and entrepreneurialism.

Aurora Levins Morales, "Child of the Americas" Questions:

Diction:

Aurora Levins Morales uses many racial/ethnic identifiers. Many of these identifiers are the compilation of one or more ethnic groups which are commonly considered distinct from one another.

1.What is Aurora Levins Morales trying to say about the nature of ethnicity,nationality and race through the use of these compilations? (ex. mestiza,U.S. puerto rican jew, Latinoamerica.)

2. Also what are these labels saying about the nature of diaspora, and the movement of peoples in an increasingly globalized world.

Pedro Pietri, "Puerto Rican Obituary" Questions

Style:

1.This poem is dominated by short declarative sentences. What effect is achieved by this stylistic choice?

2.Pedro Pietri constantly repeats phrases and lines throughout his poem. What is the effect of this repetition?

3. How do these two stylistic choices mirror Pietri's understanding of the lives and deaths of Puerto Rican workers?

Content:

1. Pietri is suggesting a relationship between numbers (financial and other wise) and the names of puerto rican immigrants. What relationship do you think Pietri is suggesting?

Brooklyn Part Three

Early in part three Miss McAdam talks to Eilis about why Miss Keegan left the house, stating that she went to Long Island?  Later It Miss McAdams states that "It might be long island for all of us".  Is Long Island used as a postivie or a negative symbol throughout the story and if so why?

How has Eilis home life in America reflected her experience as an imigrant? Why hasn't she gotten closer to any of her house mates?

Why Do you think Miss Bartocci picked Eilis to work the counter when more "colored" customers were coming into the store?

Do you think that if tony did not ask her to marry him that she would return to america? 

Why is it up to Eilis to return home and stay with her mom while her brothers go back to England? Has their absences made them less like family and more like visitors?

When Tony mentioned kids Eilis got very scared, but when talking about moving to Long Island she seems very pleased with the idea, Why?

Brooklyn by Colm Tóibín, Part Three

There are a few allusions to World War II in this section. For example, Mrs. Kehoe says “after the war some of the Italians were very forward” (109) and the old man in the bookshop mentions “the holocaust … the churben” and says “The Germans killed everyone belonging to him, murdered every one of them, but we got him out, at least we did that, we got Joshua Rosenblum out” (125). What impact do you think WWII had on interactions between ethnic groups in Brooklyn based on the behavior of these characters?

As previously mentioned in class, Bartocci’s department store appears to be maintaining its reputation for progressive racial relations in order to expand its marketability. Eilis and another worker, Miss Delano, are reassigned to the counter with darker stockings for black customers (115). How do their reactions differ? What does this say about Eilis? Why do you think Eilis finds this switch so exhausting and stressful?

Eilis meets Tony at an Irish dance, even though he is the Brooklyn-born son of Italian immigrants. Why might he have attended the event?
Is there a deeper significance to the fact that Eilis begins to doubt her relationship with Tony when he says that he wants their children “to be Dodgers fans”? What might this be?
How does Tony’s Italian family differ from or resemble Eilis’ Irish family?

Eilis is attending Brooklyn College in the hopes of advancing from working on a shop floor to being a bookkeeper in an office. Dolores’ fellow lodgers shun her because she is a “scrubber” (126). Eilis tries to explain in letters to Rose that “in this world Tony shone despite the fact that he worked with his hands” as a plumber (175). What do the reactions characters have to various occupations say about the associations between jobs and social classes? Do the characters seem to believe in the “American Dream”?

When Eilis hears about Rose’s death, she begins to cry and repeats, “Why did I ever come over here?” (179). Now that we know Rose’s fate, do you think Eilis made the right decision in allowing her family to send her to America?
Jack’s letter informing Eilis of their mother’s condition causes Eilis and Tony considerable distress, yet this leads to them having sex for the first time. What do you think Tóibín may be asserting about the relationship between grief and sexual intimacy?
Shortly after, the couple goes to confession and then marries in a quick civil ceremony, even though Eilis is not pregnant, because Eilis is returning to Ireland for a month and Tony says, “If you go, you won’t come back” (205). Do you think Tony’s concerns are valid?

Brooklyn by Colm Toibin

1. Why is Bartocci's Famous Nylon Sale a secret from everyone including the workers?

2. Why would Rose suggest Eilis write to her and send it to her work address? What does this say about the mother daughter relationships?

3. What does Eilis's dream about the courthouse symbolize?

4. "She felt almost strong as she contemplated what had just happened and she resolved that no matter who came into the room now, even if it were Mr. Bartocci himself, she would be able to elicit their sympathy." (76) What does this quote show about Eilis?

5. "She had used a tone that she had heard her mother use, which was very dry and formal. She knew that Father Flood could not tell whether she meant what she said or not." (81) We've seen Eilis take on the persona of other people in her family. Why does she do so?

6. We've discussed how the author chose to tell the stories of some of her friends and her life in Ireland, yet we haven't heard anything about her father until she thinks for a minuet she sees him at the church. Why do you think that is and what do you think happened to her father?

7. The lyrics "Ma bhion tu liom, a stoirin mo chroi" (94) loosely translate to "If you're mine be mine, treasure of my heart". Why would the author chose for the man to sing this song to Eilis having never met her before?

I have included a link to the lyrics both in Gaelic and English

http://www.celticlyricscorner.net/bothyband/casadh.htm

Also a link to a youtube video of the song.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=al9-3mW6zw8

'Brooklyn' by Colm Tiobin-Discussion Questions

Why was Rose so quiet when Father Flood was explaining to Eilis' mother about having her go to Brooklyn? Why was she willing to sacrifice the rest ofher life to take care of her mother by having Eilis go to Brooklyn instead ofher? And why did her mother agree to let her younger daughter go to a place where they knew so little about especially after all of the grief she experienced when she lost her husband and let her sons go off to work in England?

Did Eilis really accept the offer from Father Flood?

If Eilis had worked at Ms. Kelly's longer than she did, would the situation have been different? Would the thought of working in Brooklyn even arise?

On her way to America, Eilis meets up with her brother Jack in Liverpool. What's different about him? How come he doesn't show affection toward her? And why is he keeping secrets from his mother back in Ireland?

How would you describe Georgina's character? Why is Eilis attracted to her demeanor?

Questions for Brown Girl, Brownstones

What is the importance of the "new land" the family came upon?

What does the promise of this land mean for Selina personally, and what does this mean for the family?

What does this mean or say for all Bajan immigrants?

Why does Deighton hurry to leave the house so the smell of Codfish wont stain his clothes? Why doesnt he want people to know he is a foreigner?

In what ways has the death of her brother impacted Selina’s life & the ways the family deals with her?

Questions on "No-No Boy" by John Okada & "Instructions to All Persons" by Lawson Inada

1. What do you think it means to be an American? What do you think it means to be Japanese? For Kenji? For Kenji’s dad? For Ichiro? Did Kenji/ Ichiro feel more/less American/Japanese after giving their respective answers in the “loyalty questionnaire”?

2. Does Kenji’s dad feel guilty as if it is primarily his fault for Kenji’s current disability? Are there any specific lines that directly convey the dad’s thoughts about this subject? Are the dad’s feelings portrayed indirectly though the huge meal he helps prepare or his stocked whisky?

3. Despite the different answers Kenji and Ichiro gave in the “loyalty questionnaire”, both find themselves struggling at the end. Ichiro is miserable after returning from spending two years in prison and Kenji is suffering a “terminal wound”, the loss of a leg. Do you think it was possible for any Japanese-American at that time to successfully combat racism? Would answering “yes-yes” really have helped?

4. What can Kenji’s stump, symbolize? Can it symbolically represent the Japanese-American struggle during that time period?

5. Are there any similarities between Sara Smolinsky and Kenji? What factors cause the differences in their relationships with their respective fathers? Are there any similarities between Sara’s father and Kenji’s father? Differences?

6. The part where Kenji is driving to his house is described in detail, “At its foot, he braked the car almost to a full stop before carefully starting up, for the sharp angle of the hill and the loose dirt necessitated skill and caution,” (pg 2203). Can this caution and difficulty somehow symbolize Kenji’s last visit home?

7. “It was because he was Japanese and, at the same time, had to prove to the world that he was not Japanese that the turmoil was in his soul and urged him to enlist. There was confusion, but, underneath it, a conviction that he loved America and would fight and die for it because he did not wish to live anyplace else,” (pg 2205). Taking this quote into consideration, why did Kenji choose to fight?

8. The sociologist’s lecture in the relocation center resonated with Kenji’s father. The sociologist stated that the parents of Nisei (persons born in the U.S. or Canada whose parents immigrated from Japan) do not know their children. “If we are children of America and not the sons and daughters of our parents, it is because you have failed.” (pg 2207). Keeping this in mind, do you think Kenji’s father has failed as a parent considering Kenji fought for America?

9. “Them ignorant cotton pickers make me sick. You let one in and before you know it, the place will be black as night,” (pg 2211). What do you make of this racist comment said by Japanese? Is racism and hatred a repeating cycle?

10. In “Instructions to All Persons” by Inada, what is the significance of the words in parenthesis? How would this poem have sounded if it was read out loud?

11. Why do you think the words after lines 36-38, “Let us take what we can for the occasion” (pg 88) aren’t placed in parenthesis? What can this imply?

The Jazz Singer/ "Blackface White Noise"

1. The film opens with this statement: "In every living soul, a spirit cries for expression--perhaps this plaintive wailing song of Jazz is, after all, the misunderstood utterance of a prayer" Considering everything we've spoken of in class in reference to the Old and New World and everything that happened in the film, what are your thoughts about this proposition? Is the wail of the New World so different from that of the Old?

2. What did you think of the scene between Mary and Jack in his dressing room as he was applying his blackface makeup while deciding whether or not to miss his opening night performance in order to sing the Kol Nidre at the synagogue? How did that scene strike you? Also, what was the "cry of my race" that Jackie was referring to?

3.Does the recurring theme of crying seem at all significant to you? "The wail of Jazz" "The cry of my race" "the cry in his voice" etc...

4. This question I lifted from the reading, and while I think it was intended to be a rhetorical one, I thought it interesting enough to ask: In reference to the idea of blackface being a "mask for Jewish expressiveness, with one woe speaking through the voice of another" "What Jewish "woe" does the jazz singers blackface express?

5. What are your thoughts on this "sinister paradox" Rogin refers to in his essay:"Assimilation is achieved through the mask of the most segregated; the blackface that offers Jews mobility keeps the blacks fixed in place." Is this at all evident in the film?

6. Did the film strike you at all as being one-sided in its depiction of the conflict between Jewish Immigrant and America?

7.From the perspective of Cantor Rabinowitz, why do you think his reaction to his son's desire to sing "raggy-time songs" was such a visceral one? What did Jazz represent to him? What threat did he think it posed to him and his family's legacy?

8.In watching the film, did you, at any point find yourself taking sides? did you want Jackie to sing the Kol Nidre and abandon his show, or choose the show over his family's request?

9.Do you agree with Rogin that "Blacks may have seemed the most distinctively American people" and that "integral to that distinctiveness was their exclusion from the ethnic intermixture that defined the melting pot"? and, do you think this, in any way, tied into the appeal of blackface for performers and audiences alike?

10. Watching it through modern day eyes, did you find the films nonchalant treatment of blackface at all puzzling or disturbing?

11. The films main subject was the struggle between father and son, with the mother, stuck in the middle, attempting to placate both sides, an idea we've seen before, in "Bread Givers". Why is it, do you think, that when portraying a conflict between the old and new world, the patriarch is more often than not, the torch bearer for the old world, the child for the new, and the mother, stuck in the middle? Why is this the dynamic?

The Jazz Singer Online Free (and by free I don't mean pirated)

The Jazz singer is availible for download from The Internet Archive which is

"a 501(c)(3) non-profit that was founded to build an Internet library. Its purposes include offering permanent access for researchers, historians, scholars, people with disabilities, and the general public to historical collections that exist in digital format"

You can right click any of the links under the "movie files" heading and click download as

Here is the link http://www.archive.org/details/TheJazzSinger

Questions for "Trans-National America" by Randolph Bourne 9/27/2011

1) It is most certainly true when Bourne says, "we are all foreign-born or the descendants of foreign-born." So everyone is, in a way, an immigrant of America. What are some changes you have made to assimilate into this country, if any? Do you feel like you are sacrificing any beliefs or values to assimilate into this culture?

2) In Bourne's excerpt, he referred to several specific activities and items to be the "most rudimentary American," for example the "American culture of the cheap newspaper, the "movies," the popular song, the ubiquitous automobile." He believed that these actions and activities were done by what he deemed the typical American. What do you consider to be some symbolic American activities that we practice nowadays?

3) More than once, Bourne has used the term "the Anglo Saxon." Who is he really referring to?

4) Do you agree with Bourne? Do you feel like every culture should keep their own traditional beliefs? Do you feel like each and every nationality should assimilate into the American culture completely now that they are in a new land? What are some specific changes that you feel are necessary to assimilate into America?

5) What do you think Bourne would have to say about today's generation? Was the melting pot successful?

Discussion Questions For 9/26

In the readings today we read two articles which both discussed the idea of American culture. In 'Trans-National America' Randolph Bourne offers some biting criticism of the United States. Bourne was writing in the year 1916, but much of what he says seems to have become even more important in modern day America. Bourne accuses American culture of being vapid, one driven by the crowd and devoid of any spiritual life. How is Bourne's criticism one that foreshadows future decades of American culture? How could this essay apply to the 1950s? 80s? 2000s? Marti makes a similar point in his essay 'Coney Island', offering a critique of America's constant search for the spectacle and hangs a dark cloud over the lights of Coney Island. How has this dystopic vision of the United States spread throughout the world? In what ways has this American idea of the spectacle invaded other cultures? How does it manifest itself in our lives today? Has any progress been made towards a more spiritual American core?

Class Discussion Response-How the Other Half Lives

First of all, I was very surprised that my question "Why do you think Riis cares about "how the other half lives?"" had so many different responses. For me the answer was obvious that he just wanted to help poor people by letting everybody know how they lived and that they needed some support. Maybe it was because I knew his background a little from the other sources. Students also seemed very excited when they had a chance to answer the Anna's question "Are there still poor housing conditions today? What parts?". It was interesting to listen different stories about the really horrible overcrowded apartments. Some students described areas in the New York City and in Brooklyn, that are so packed with Chinese immigrants, that even if the kids die in these families, nobody knows, because they all look the same and have no legal rights to live here. It seemed like we are talking about 1800, but not about the today's life. Then prof. Davis showed us the real photos, taken in 1800-1900 by Riis and Hine. They portrayed people living in poverty and in a very bad conditions. They were projected on a big screen in a good quality,(even though black and white), so everybody could see them. Almost everyone in the classroom were involved in the discussion of these pictures. Finally,we all agreed that Hine's pictures are pretty positive and have a lot of light and open space. Women and kids on his pictures seemed happy and careless. Riis' showed these same people in a very dark and dirty setting, mostly in a small apartments that had no windows. Men in his pictures looked very tired, hungry and desperate. It's interesting to observe how the people from the same neighborhood can be portrayed in two completely opposite ways. In my opinion, even though people looked much better in Hine's photos, Riis' works brought them more happiness by dragging Government's attention to their needs. Anyway, the class discussion went well and active as usually!:)

Discussion on How the Other Half lives & photography

We sat in the quiet like we always did, a whole bunch of people of immigrant descent. Something was different today, there was an extra large display screen that we (I) wished we could have in our haus. The conversation started as a small fire and exploded, (not literally, or else, we'd all be kinds of messed up right now). We pondered as to why Jacob Riis cared about how the other half lived and came up with many ideas.
1) Riis, himself, was poor and worked his way up to middle class and empathized with the poor and their condition of living.
2) The oppression of the poor would someday drive them crazy enough to revolt against the middle and higher class. The poor is what makes the world go round. (viva la revolucion!)
3) He was just an altruistic kind of human being. (we the little people thank you)

Professor Davis then proceeded with his cool keyboard to flip through the photographs that Jacob Riis and Lewis Hine took. He then brought about the question of how the photographs were taken and it was usually planned. (Ooops) Apparently, since photography was still in its infant stage, the photographer would have had to lug a giant camera around and thus the element of surprise would be gone. We discussed about this in great length, if the planning of the photographs affected the picture and overall "feel" of the photograph.
Some said: "No it doesn't because they weren't given the clothes they were wearing and the setting that they were in. So, the picture still captured the most essential aspect of tenement living" (This isn't word for word)
There was a picture with three boys sleeping on a barrel and one boy was seen to be smirking. Some questioned as to whether it was because the child was giddy with excitement to have his picture taken, that it spilled out to his sleeping face.

Besides the discussion of Riis and the photographs. The conditions of immigrants today were discussed as well. People saw descents of China and Mexico living in tenement like conditions. There are people who share apartments between 5+ people and those who live in clutter. The reason why they can't do anything about it?
1) New immigrants do not possess green cards/visas/passports. No one knows about their situations and often times they don't know where to get help.
2) They have no money or time to speak up about their problems because they have work an excessive amount to send money back to their countries.
3) First generation-ers would rather suffer the hard times to make sure that the next generation or the generation after that would be able to live a better life, as to live a selfless life.

Italian Settlement House Projects

discussion questions.

1) How has education changed within the span of 100 years?
2) Has gender roles changed within this span?
3) If we were to put Sara Smolinsky into these pictures, in which ones would she appear the most?
4) Where are the people in these pictures going to be, in say, 20 years from when the picture is taken?
5) Is there a promotion of higher education? With whom and what pictures?

T.John Bread Givers analysis

The discussion questions that were presented to the class sparked a vast amount of interest and highlighted the reoccurring theme of dirt. Throughout the book the reader realizes that a great emphasis is placed on the relevance of dirt and the role it plays on all the characters within the plot. The women in the book are constantly cleaning up and trying to get the "dirt" out of their living quarters and their surroundings. Dirt is a motif used to highlight the constant strains placed on the protagonist and the fact that she can never totally escape her heritage, ancestry and eco economic status just as she cannot escape dirt which is a part of life.

The use of dirt as a literary device is very compelling because when one thinks of dirt we think of something blackened, muddy and something that we wish was not such a hassle on our every day cleaning lives, the fact that dirt is a constant reminder to Sara as to her heritage is very interesting and keeps the reader guessing whether she can ever escape her black "abyss" or was she just destined to be intertwined with her family with the "old world" still having a tight grasp on her "American" outlook. Overall the book gives a good insight into the Old World versus the New World and paints a vast comparison of the two worlds with both on very different spectrums with no medium or hope for compromise on either end in merging.

T.John "Bread Givers"

Discussion Question for pages 155-234.

1.Was Max Goldstein as evil as Sara portrayed him to be?

2. Was anyone surprised to see Sara's mother at her doorsteps?

3. Does Sara regret her decision to escape her family?

4. Why does Sara not fit in/escape her "black/ dirt abyss" when she goes off to college?

5. Is education now/ then the salvation or escape to the "American Dream"?

How the Other Half Lives- Questions.

1. Why do you think Riis cares about "how the other half lives"?

2. "In many instances the police had to drag the tenants out by force." (last line of the first paragraph) Do you think it was an effective method? Why or why not?

3."...the younger criminals as victims of low social conditions of life and unhealthy, overcrowded lodgings, brought up in "an atmosphere of actual darkness, moral and physical." Do you think this phrase is still true for our generation? Explain.

4. What shocked you most in this story?

5. If you would be in the U.S. Government during 1800-1900, what would you do to solve this problem with overcrowded tenements?

Photographers That Shot for Justice

Meet Jacob (Danger) Riis.
Well okay, his middle name isn't Danger but, it might as well be since he's so badass....looking. Look at the way he's posing his left arm, it says "I don't give a turd what you think about me, I'm here to exploit the rich and evils of corporate America! Powaaa to the poor!"

So what makes him a photographer of justice? Well take a look at his tenement photography and you shall see why.









This picture taken by Riis in 1888 of three boys sleeping on a...yep that's right, a barrel, staircase and each other. Now, if you were to give a caption to this photo, what would it say? If not a caption, what do you feel when seeing this picture?





Jacob Riis yet again, prowls the night and finds people about to sleep and snaps pictures of them. Oh and did I mention that Riis used flash powder at the time so that he could capture pictures in the dark and inside tenements? Imagine how this guy felt, just about to fall asleep on his barrel bed and Riis jumps out and with a bright light says, "cheese sleepy head!" I'd want to beat Riis to bloody pulp but, that's why he's so bad-ass.

On a more serious note, look at the setting of the photo. What are his eyes saying?
(GTFO! Just kidding) What is his bed made out of?





Bandit's Roost/Thug Life - Tenement Style

Another picture that Riis had no problem taking, there's one guy to the right holding a stick. A freaking stick! What do you think they were doing or talking about before Riis decided to show up with a giant camera? What kind of work would they have done?

Riis is praised for his tenacity as a investigative reporter, Lincoln Steffens was so amazed by him that he says "(Riis) not only got the news; he cared about the news. He hated passionately all tyrannies, abuses, miseries, and he fought them. He was a terror to the officials and landlords responsible, as he saw it, for the desperate condition of the tenements where the poor lived."

Riis had the fire of a thousand suns burning in his soul to expose the gritty and biting reality of the poor, if that isn't bad-ass, I'm not sure what is.

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Well moving onto our next photographer of justice, Mister Lewis Hine.
A little bit about Hine, he detested the treatment of children in the labor force. He was so disgusted that when factories turned him down for muckraking, he would hide his camera and pretend to be a fire inspector. Clever trick Hines, very clever. One of his speeches included this little bit, "Perhaps you are weary of child labour pictures. Well, so are the rest of us, but we propose to make you and the whole country so sick and tired of the whole business that when the time for action comes, child labour pictures will be records of the past." In 1916 legislation was passed to protect children, Hines probably made sure to the end that the government had taken care of the legislation, possibly with a camera and knife of justice.



But, enough of Hines for now, let's move onto to his photographs that were often times, taken in secret.










Here is a young boy, the caption claims he is a "German Steelworker"
How old do you think this...boy is? What kind of caption would you give this picture?











This is Leo, aged 8, working in a textile factory.

What are the dangers for a young child working at a factory? What kind of emotions do you feel when looking at the picture? How is his physical appearance? And...most importantly, where the heck are his shoes?!?!





William Parralla, 313 Second St., S.W., Washington, D.C., a 7 year old newsboy, standing on street with newspapers.

What time do you think it is? The weather?

Extra Questions
1) Are there still poor housing conditions today? What parts?
2) Where might the immigrants today find work?
3) Do you know of anyone who is an immigrant? You don't have to say names or anything. What kind of work do they do?
4) The legal to age to work is 17 now, should it be lower or higher? Why?