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?