The shawl

I believe that Rosa is slowly losing her mind. I feel as though Rosa is so mentally disturbed and broken from her time at the concentration camp. I feel like Rosa internalizes everything. Rosa feels like she doesn’t have a family Stella betrayed her and Magda is dead. I believe that it is obvious Rosa is slowly losing her mind. From the minute Magda died Rosa was emotionally and mentally broken. Rosa couldn’t even let anyone see her cry, for fear she would die. Rosa used the blanket as security to hide herself from showing pain. Rosa hides in her ”motel” and never settles down into a real home. I feel that Rosa thinks she doesn’t deserve a good life. I think Rosa is not only guilty but she is also losing her mind. Rosa holds things inside so much that eventually she just snaps like in the antique shop. I also believe that Rosa began to write letters to Magda to help deal with her grief but at the same time eventually she will think she is still alive because when you psychologically tell yourself something over and over again eventually you will believe it. The only outside contact that Rosa had really with the outside world is a man named Mr. Persky. Mr. Persky is a button maker. “If you’re alone too much, you think too much” Mr. Persky stated on pg. 27. This quote was said after their first meeting when he offered to walk her home. I feel as though this quote speaks for itself in Rosas case. I think this is exactly what Rosa needed to hear because she thinks too much about her “old” life and needs to think about the presence and needs to get away from the grief and the sorrow. Rosa needs someone to listen to her and talk to her and I think a lot of her problems will be resolved.

the shawl

Reading the beginning of “The Shawl” was heart wrenching. To hear the reality of what people actually went through during the concentration camps is surreal. I think its awful how malnourished the prisoners were in the camps. Rosa couldn’t even produce enough milk to feed her baby Magda. In the beginning of the book we see a vivid picture of Rosa and how food deprived she was and how she is giving any source of food or nutrients to Magda. Ozick describes Rosa’s knees as tumors on sticks and she also she described her as “someone who is already a floating angel.” Hearing the descriptions of what went on in the concentration camps is so scary and sad and it really hits home for me and a lot of people I know because we all have had family that had relatives or knew someone in the concentration camps.

I think that it is interesting how the novella started off with such vivid descriptions of what was going on in the concentration camps. I think this defiantly drew me into the book and made me want to closely read and to paint the vivid descriptions of Rosa, Magda, and Stella. I got sort of confused after the first chapter when it went into Rosa’s chapter. In Rosa’s chapter it started off with Rosa smashing up her own store and moving to Miami. I am confused about how she ended up where she is now. I believe that is important that we see that Rosa writes letters in English to Stella. I am not sure as to why she is writing in English when she and Stella were both Polish. I think Rosa defiantly has dramatic affects from the concentration camps such as reciting her name in “application form”. I think the reason she destroyed her store comes from post dramatic stress. There is no way one can go to a concentration camp and not be affected for life.

Otsuka post 2

I believe that Otsuka used vague names throughout the novel for many diffrent reasons. I believe that in the novel using "women" "boy" and "girl" it gave off the epression that everyone thinks lower of the Japenese in American Society. I feel that this could symbolize that American's thought the Japanese were all the same, and they all had bad motives. By not giving them names it showed a lack of identity which I feel that all of them feltt in the internment camps. The japensese were all singled out because of their race not becuase of anything else.
I also feel that Otsuka could have used generalities to make the story not only towards this one family but also towards the Japanese race in general. I feel that by using generalities it makes the book more relatable to others. Also I think that by making the book one big generality it takes away the connection between the characters and the author. I feel as if the author did not want to tell a story of her family or people she knew, I feel that she told this story for all affected by the internment camps to relate to. I feel that this is one of the only pieces of literature about the internment camps that i have ever heard of and Otsuka wanted to speak for the whole race to show that they all wen throught a similar tragedy.

Otsuka Post 1

Personally I have never ever learned of the Japanese internment camps in america during the 1940's. I believe that this was a huge part of american history that has been hidden and sort of a secret since it happend. I have always heard the story of pearl harbor and the history of WWII but never have I heard of these internment camps. After class on Wednesday I took sometime to ask my sororiy sisters as well as my friends if they have ever heard about the Japenese camps. One person stated that they had no idea what I was talking about, and another said "I know that America had them, but I have no idea what they were for or what happened there.' It shocks me how this event was kept secret from any history textbook I have ever read. In class we talked about this even being a stain on americas hands and they are correct. The novel gives a first hand experience of these camps. I feel that the author used generalized names for the Japenese characters in the book because she wanted us to feel how they felt. I feel that it was done on purpose to show us what Japense Americans felt at this time in history. I could only imagine how much scrutany and negative things the Japense had to face at this time. I believe that this novel was written for a purpose. I feel that this novel was written to show everyone what actually happend, as well as to raise awarness about this nearly invisible time in American History.

Push

I believe Push ended on a very sad note. I think that there are many reasons as to why Sapphire ended the novel with Preccious HIV postive. I believe that she ended this way mainley to give her another obstical and to show us that she has another tough situation but she will push through it. I believe that the author left this ending to leave it up to the reader to decide what we think Preccious is going to do from here. The book doesnt necessarly have all of a negative ending. Preccious's children are not infected with HIV which is a brighter note. I believe that if Abdul was infected the Precious wouldnt know how to handle it. By the end of the novel Precious gained self confidence because she finally had someone expect something from her. I believe that Precious had no self confidence because she never had expectations. If no one expects something of you then you will never expect something from yourself. I believe meeting Ms. Rain was the best thing that could have ever happend to Precious. I feel very bad for Precious. I feel that no child should ever have to endure this sort of abuse. Abuse happens all the time. I believe that ever child should have a Ms. Rain but in all reality that will never happen. This novel raised awarness how how the public systems fail people. This novel also gives a great moral lesson, which was if you just speak up and try to help someone you will change their life and make a diffrence.

Push post 1

I am very interested to see what happens in Push. I enjoy the fact that Sapphire writes Push spelling how Clerrice (Preccious) would write. I believe the author does this to show progression in her learning. I also believe that Push received its title becuase when Preccious gave birth to her first child the EMS said "push" I believe that the significance of the title is to show the struggles that Clarice is going through and how she pushed forward to get to where she wants to be. In the beginning of the novel it broke my heart to read that a sixteen year old has to deal with being sexually abused by her father. I dont really know why Clarrice doesnt want to learn. Clarrice is very hostile i believe becuase of her home life has alot to do with how she acts towards others. Clarrices mother isnt not supportive and she relferred to her daughter as a slut and horrible names for being pregant with her fathers baby. I believe that with such an unstable home life that it is impossible to fully live up to your capibilities. I believe that through out the novel we are going to see inspiring situations where preccious pushes through and overcomes the odds. When Preccious was younger she was made fun of and called laughing ugly. I believe that preccious takes what others say about her to heart and that is truley why she doesnt want to learn. I believe preccious's pholosophy is, if you dont try then you cant fail. I think we will see many diffrent changes through Clarrice throughout the novel.