Final Paper

Text-self Stage

Rushdie’s Haroun and the Sea of Stories was one of my favorite novels of the semester, but so was Strapi’s The Complete Persepolis and Iweala’s Beasts of No Nation. Saying that, it was a difficult decision to decide which book to choose to write this paper on, but in the end Rushdie’s novel ended up being the winner. I leaned more towards that book because it was when the term “magical realism” was introduced, and the concept of the book is one of my favorite types. I really enjoy anything that has people from a character’s “real life” show up in their dreams, or in another “world.” I think it is because the first time I saw Wizard of Oz and Alice in Wonderland I wished that something like that would happen to me. Maybe it was the idea of escaping real life issues or just the idea of, “what characters would the people in my real life be in my other ‘realm.’” I often found myself placing these roles while I watched Wizard of Oz, sometimes my mom would be the Wicked Witch other times it was a teacher or a different family member. It is a little embarrassing to admit it but even now I find myself doing this. Sometimes when I read stories like Rushdie’s I wish that they could be true stories and not fiction. Growing up my dad was contently telling stories that I wish I could live, and I think that is another reason I was drawn to Haroun and the Sea of Stories. Like Haroun I would ask my dad “Where do these stories come from?”(Rushdie, 16) and like Rashid Khalifia my dad would reply with silly answers. I learned to appreciate the stories that my dad would tell, but still to this day I wonder how he came up with them.
The pages that I chose to focus on were pages forty-seven to fifty and pages sixty-three to sixty-eight. Pages forty-seven to fifty are when Haroun and Rashid Khalifa are on Dull Lake with Snotty Buttoo, and Haroun is realizing that his father’s “Tale of Moody Land” might actually be true. To test his theory he tells everyone to “…just stop talking. Not a word” (Rushdie, 49), and right away the lake settles down. The end of this section has one of my favorite quotes from the book, which is one of the reason why I selected these pages, “He knew what he knew: that the real world was full of magic, so magical worlds could easily be real” (Rushdie, 50). I like this quote because it reminds me of the idea “not to take life so seriously,” which a lot of people do in the busy world that we live in. It reminds the reader to take a second to reflect on the good things in their life, and worry about the serious things. I think that is an important thing to remember, because anything can happen in a matter of seconds. This is something Haroun learns in the next section of pages that I selected. Pages sixty-three to sixty-eight are right after Haroun meets the Water Genie and steals his “Disconnector.” The Water Genie tells Haroun to pick an ‘any bird’ to travel to see the Walrus. One second Haroun is sleeping and the next he is flying through the air to a world he never thought was real. This section also has a quote that stuck out while I was reading, “Believe in your own eyes and you’ll get into a lot of trouble, hot water, a mess” (Rushdie, 63). I like this idea it reminds me of “thinking outside the box.” Many people want everything done for them or the easy route, but that is not what life is about. That is one of the many lessons that a reader can learn from Rushdie’s novel.
I liked this book because it was filled with lessons that a reader can take from it, and it kept the reader interested the entire time. It taught me that life is an adventure, and depending on how you take things as they are presented, depends on how life will end up. Although Haroun was scared through each adventure, he stilled faced them and got through each one, making them seem like a piece of cake. This story reminded me about situations that I have gone through in my life, sometimes I thought I could never get through them, but in the end I did. While going through those experiences I learned lessons, but one thing that I always remind myself is life is what you make it, and how things are handled. At the end of the story Haroun’s life goes back to the way he wanted it; he tells the Hoopoe, “‘it’s really good to know you’ll be here when I need you. But the way things are just now, I honestly don’t need to go anywhere at all’” (Rushdie, 211). Like in the novel, everything works out when you go through rough patches in your life.
Text-text stage
For this part of the paper I decided to use Rushdie’s Imaginary Homelands, and The Wizard of Oz. In Imaginary Homelands, Rushdie says, “…our response to the world is essentially imaginative: that is, picture-making” (Rushdie, 377). He is basically saying that everyone is stuck believing in their picture they have painted of the world. People believe what they want to believe, and pick and choose what is “right” and what is “wrong.” These beliefs are also constructed in the way people in power present things to the public; they will tell people in society what they want to hear, even if it is wrong. In Haroun and the Sea of Stories, this is exactly what Snooty Buttoo wants Rashid to do when he tells his stories, “You will tell happy stories, praising stories, and the people will believe you, and be happy, and vote for me” (Rushdie, 47). Even though Rashid does not agree with what Buttoo is telling him to do, he will do what is asked of him. Rushdie is saying that the picture that people paint of this world comes from what we are told by politicians and people in higher power, and these people do not care if what they are saying is true, as long as our pictures are happy. Another idea that Rushdie presents in Imaginary Homelands is, “Human beings understand themselves and shape their futures by arguing and challenging and questioning and saying the unsayable; not by bowing the knee, whether to gods or to men” (Rushdie, 394,395). This idea goes along with his other idea of the way people imagine the world. They just accept what is being told to them, and do not argue their own beliefs. He wants people to fight for what they believe is the right thing, and question what they do not understand. This is what Haroun does many times in Haroun and the Sea of Stories; he questions things that are not normal to him and says what is on his mind. The Water Genie helps him open his mind to new ideas. When Haroun is questioning the Water Genie about what type a bird to choose, the Water Genie shows him things are not always as they seem and just because he has not seen something does not mean it is not there, “Africa, have you seen it? No? Then is it truly there? …Believe in your own eyes and you’ll get in a lot of trouble…” (Rushdie, 63). Rushdie shows the reader that things should be questioned, so you can learn new things and again think outside of the box. Finally when Haroun is approaching Gup City and the Butt the Hoopoe tells him that Kahani is the Earth second moon, Haroun replies very confused, “ But but but…surely the Earth has just one Moon?” (Rushdie, Haroun and the Sea of Stories, 67). This maybe true, but Rushdie may say that the Earth in fact could have two moons, we are just told there is only one moon. In Imaginary Homelands Rushdie states that, “...imposed orthodoxies of all types, from the view that the world is quite clearly This and not That” (Rushdie, 396). This is how many people view the world, for example some people think you should live your life by what the bible says. These people believe that this is the right way to live and the “tolerate” people who live their lives differently. Rushdie would say that these people can live the way they want to, but should educate themselves on other ways to live, and not be so quick to judge those who do not agree to live the way they do. The idea that the world is “This and not That,” is the same as it is “black and white,” and Rushdie definitely does not see the world this way. He wants his readers to expand their minds, and think of things differently than they normally would.
Just like Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz sets off to meet the Wizard of Oz, Haroun sets off to meet the Walrus, and both characters are hoping to get something from the person they set out to meet. Haroun and Dorothy meet people along the way who remind them of people in their “real lives” or in Haroun’s case stories he has heard in his real life, and become friends with these people. In the movie Wizard of Oz the viewer sees everything in black and white, but when Dorothy travels into Oz everything is very colorful and magical. In Haroun and the Sea of Stories, Haroun sees things in black and white in the beginning. He does not appreciate his father’s stories, but when he sets out on his journey he begins to see the purpose of the stories told by his father. When he enters Gup City it seems like things are unbelievable to him, just like Dorothy views things in Oz. In the pages that I looked focused on Haroun can not wrap his head around the idea that one of the little birds in the Water Genie’s hand will be big enough for him to ride on, but to his amazement it grows big enough, “And although it seemed obvious to Haroun that these magical creatures were so small that they couldn’t possibly have carried so much as a bitten-off fingernail…” (Rushdie, 64). This is something that Haroun is not used to, but accepts that it is happening. In the Wizard of Oz when Dorothy comes across the scarecrow, she does not believe that it is the scarecrow who is speaking to her, but just like Haroun she accepts and invites him to see the Wizard so he can get a brain. When Haroun gets on the Hoopoe he starts thinking of how similar the ride on the Hoopoe is to his ride with the Mail Coach Driver and comes to realize how the Butt the Coach Driver and the Hoopoe have same characteristics, “Come to think of it, this Hoopoe with its crest of feathers reminds me quite a bit of old Butt with his quaff of hair standing straight up on his head! – And if Butt’s whiskers were somehow feathery, then this Hoopoe’s feather…have a distinct hairy feel” (Rushdie, 66). In the Wizard of Oz people from Dorothy’s real life are other characters in the Land of Oz. In the end of the movie Dorothy is in her bed and she is telling the people in her real life who they were in the Land of Oz, and of course they do not believe her, so she just laughs it off. In the end of Haroun and the Sea of Stories, Haroun like Dorothy is in his bed.
Text- world Stage
For this last step of the paper I decided to focus on the idea of censorship. I found an article on CNN.com titled “Fighting back against Censorship.” It is a piece from a book edited by Judy Blume called Places I Never Meant to Be. Judy Blume like Salman Rushdie has gotten a lot of criticism for the books that she has written, many of which have been banded from libraries and schools. I have read novels Blume has written both for young adults and adults, and recalling these novels I do not remember anything that could not be applied to everyday life or similar experiences a person will face in their life. Rushdie wrote in Imaginary Homelands that, “It has been bewildering to learn that people, millions upon millions of people, have been willing to judge The Satanic Verses and its author, without reading it, without finding out what a manner of a man this fellow might be, on the basis of such allegations as these” (Rushdie, 397). This just shows how ignorant people can be. Should it be left up to a parent to decide what their child can and can not read? Yes, but when it gets to a point when the parent is not letting their child read something because it might be too realistic, seems a little out of hand to me. When Blume wrote the book, Are You There God? Its Me, Margaret, in 1970 it became a target for censorship. The story is about a young girl’s “feelings towards menstruation, religion, and growing up” (Blume, 2). Blume gave copies to her children’s elementary school but the books never reached the shelves, Blume says, “The male principal decided on his own that they were inappropriate for elementary school readers because of the discussion of menstruation…Then one night the phone rang and a woman asked if I was the one who had written that book. When I replied that I was, she called me a communist and hung up. I never did figure out if she equated communism with menstruation or religion” (Blume, 2). When I read the last line of the quote it sounded like something that Rushdie would also say. Along with the idea of censorship Rushdie also talks about freedom of speech in Imaginary Homelands, “What is freedom of expression? Without the freedom to offend, it ceases to exist” (Rushdie, 396). Both Rushdie and Blume wrote things that offended readers, or in some cases non-readers, but both think that they should have the right to say what they want. Rushdie shows through Haroun’s father in Haroun and the Sea of Stories. When Snooty Buttoo wants Rashid to tell only happy stories Rashid replies, “Surely you don’t want me to tell just sugar-and-spice tales?...Not all good stories are of that type. People can delight in the saddest of sob-stuff as long as they find it beautiful” (Rushdie, 48). This sounds as if it came straight from Rushdie’s mouth, since he is the author it obviously is his view on stories. All authors realize that not everyone is going to like what they put out there, but they do want people to approach it with an open mind.
Every author writes something for a reason, even if it is only for them. I believe that Rushdie writes to help his readers look at things from different points of views, and does not necessarily want them to like it. Reading his works I came to the understanding that he wants them to be questioned and most importantly read standing outside the box.











Works Cited
Blume, Judy. “Fighting Back Against Censorship:” ‘Places I Never Meant to Be’. CNN. December 5, 2008 http://www.cnn.com/books/beginnings/9908/places.never/index.html?iref=newssearch
Rushdie, Salman. Haroun and the Sea of Stories. London: Granta Books, 1990.
Rushdie, Salman. Imaginary Homelands. London: Granta Books, 1991.

Persepolis

I think that besides Huron and the Sea of Stories, Persepolis, would have to be my favorite novel so far this semester. I am not sure what it is about the story that draws me in but I just love the way Marjane writes this story. I find myself getting so wrapped up in the story I don’t know what is going on around me. I think one of the reason I like it so much is because it is a personal story about history. I am not a huge fan of history, but when it is a first hand account I feel like it makes more sense not to mention it is more interesting. I think that the imagery helps a little bit too, but I think I would still like it without it there. I think the drawings help the story come to life and even though they don’t let the reader use their full imagination I still like to think about what happened next or what she would draw next if she could. As I thought about it I found myself wishing that some other novels I have read in the past were graphic novels. For example in Romantic/Victorian Lit. we are reading Frankenstein, and I thought that if it had pictures to go along it would be scarier. I really enjoy this story and I think that the way Marjane presents it makes a lot of difference in that.

As this book comes to an end I am having a hard time. I feel like I need to go back and re-read it. I wish that this book could have been assigned for me to read at a different time because of all the other reading I have going on it has been hard for me just to sit and enjoy a book. I have been finding myself reading what is assigned (if that) than going on to the next assignment not retaining much and not taking time to reflect on what I have just read. This is a hard thing for me because normally when I read it is for pleasure whether it is in my free time or for a class. I don’t like to read a book just because I have to I want to read it because I want to. I think that I will definitely have to re-read One Hundred Years of Solitude again over break so I can actually take time to enjoy it and read the entire thing not just bits and pieces.

With that being said I would like to say a little about Ursula. I noticed that many people in class have said that the book wouldn’t be the same with out her. I would definitely have to agree with this statement, she is the one who is holding everything together and keeping some kind of control. I think this is interesting because it seems like most families have this person no matter what culture they are a part of. It makes the book a little easier to relate to since it is hard to relate to insect and ghost.

Gabo/Solitude

I always love to learn about authors' lives,it makes their stories much more interesting for me to read. Learning about Gabo today really helped make connections to the story and made me realize that the characters in it really reflect people in his family. When I read books I always find myself looking through the book for the "about the author section," for whatever reason knowing their background helps me to understand what I am reading a little bit better. I have already noticed the connections with the politics, war, and as I said his characters reflecting his family. I hope as I continue to read I notice more of these things.

The other topic I would like to touch on is solitude. I really like that we come up with definitions in class for new topics brought up. So many times you introduce a to a word that I think I have an understanding of what it means, but all of the sudden I realize I have know idea at all what it means. That came very apparent today. I couldn't even tell you what I thought solitude meant before today's class. I mean I new it meant something to be alone but after reading the handout in class I realized I needed a better understanding of it. I kind of got this today but I still am unsure if I understand the word completely. Although I can say I have a better understanding of it now than before, and hopefully as I read I can relate it to the story and get an even better understanding.

PS I was very surprised to learn of Gabo's connection with Fidel Castro. When you first mentioned it I thought you were joking.

Although before I really liked Magical Realism, our discussion in class added more ideas to it that made it much more interesting to me. I now understand it a little better since we added those concepts. Before I didn’t know that it had aspects of historical things. I also really like the idea that it is something that treats extraordinary things as being something that is natural. This idea kind of reminds me of how the news treats certain stories. When they introduce something that happens, and it is a big deal, it seems like the news caster is like a robot as they say it. For example if there is a huge fire somewhere and they break into a show to tell you, sometimes the way that they present/say the news makes it seem like it is not a big deal. Later on they show a picture of the building that was on fire, and the entire building is burned down. Maybe this is because they aren’t allowed to show emotions, I am not saying all news casters are like that, but most are. I don’t know if this is a good example or not, but that is what that phrase brought to my head.

Blog Paper

In the beginning of this semester I started off being at the text-stage out of the three reading development stages. Through out the years and especially at Stritch, I have had to do a lot of “reflection” papers on things that I have had to read. Many teachers at Stritch are constantly assigning reflection papers, which basically consist of the students’ thoughts about what they have read. The “common addressed questions” in stage one are the questions they want you to answer as you are reflecting on what you have read, “Do I like this text,” “Does this text remind me of an experience from my life,” “Is this text good or bad?” One class this happened frequently in was my Faith Development class, every time we read, we had to write a reflection paper answering those questions almost verbatim. Also a lot of my first Education classes dealt with many reflection papers on things we had to read and on myself. Again the reflections in these classes were to be written answering those questions, and when it was about reflecting on ourselves it was progress we have made and how far we have come. All of these things are centered on the idea of “I think this,” or “I believe this.” None of these questions gave the opportunity to bring in the chance of comparing what we have read to other text or to what is going on in the world. I think these papers are what influenced my writing style and are why I write a lot of “I –centered” ideas.
I also do a lot of reading on my own, at least when I have the chance to. As I am reading these books, I notice that I tend to base a lot of my ideas about on whether or not I like it, relate things I read to experiences in my life, and at the end was the book good or bad. I also relate the books that I read to ones that I have read either on my own or for school. If I find myself relating the book I am reading to one I have had to read for school, I tend to look at the same way we did to the book I had to read in my class. I also find myself relating a lot of what I have read to movies I have seen, which helps me to understand what I am reading better.
I believe that I now am in between two stages of reading development, stage one and two. I am trying to get used to bringing in ideas from other things that I have read and relate it to things that are going on in the world. In a lot of my English classes this is what my teachers want me to do and use to expand my work, but for some reason it is a challenge for me to include these things. Although it comes as a challenge I really try hard to be conscious of bringing in the ideas as I am writing.
The first example that I have is from my very first blog I wrote, the blog was about the movie Bride and Prejudice. “I found the movie to be very comical, but at the same time I was surprised that I found it somewhat enjoyable,” this quote is a perfect example of the text-self stage. I was only saying what I thought, I didn’t compare it to how it related to our story, or how the characters were depicted. The next example that I have is from my fourth blog, “I didn’t bring it up in class because I hate bringing up my accident but, since it was such a big part of my life it is hard not to relate things to it once in a while,” this quote is also a perfect example of the text-self stage. I am relating the text to and experience from my life , I could have related it to a different text I have read, or to something that is happening in the world, instead it was related to my life. An example of text-other texts is from my blog entry about relating Huron and the Sea of Stories, to Alice in Wonderland. “The next thing was how the Gups’ army or “Library” was made up of actual Pages like in a book. That reminded me of the Queen of Hearts people who were made up of playing cards,” here I am relating the text to another text that I have read. This shows that I am capable of relating our readings to other text and I don’t have to be so “I-centered” while analyzing our readings. Finally my last quote is from my fifth blog entry, “One movie that kept running through my mind that shows so many stereotypes, Harold & Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay, and most have been brought on from the political aspect. It isn’t the best movie, but there is a ridiculously large amount of stereotypes,” this quote is also an example of text-other texts. This quote really makes me realize that if I take the time I can come up with more than what I think of a text and relate it to other stories, movies, or politics.
It should be easy for me to move more into stages two and three of the stages of reading development. I have already begun to do this in my blogs in small ways, and if I just take the time to think about things I should be able to do it in bigger ways. One way I will begin to do this is not just sit down and do my blog about what I feel or think, but really take the time to try to find something to relate the reading to such as another book or the world. Another way I will do this is jot down my ideas in class when I have them. Many thoughts go through my head in class about how the text relates to something I am reading in another class or something I heard on the news, but when I go to write my bog this ideas aren’t there anymore. Finally, I think the easiest way for me to improve my blogs is not only to relate what we have talked about in class to the text, but also to show that I understand what we have talked about through other text, movies, and world issues.
These blogs have been really helpful to make sense of our readings, and I think that if it weren’t for them I would be having many difficulties getting through this class.

Making sense of things…is it really necessary?

Making sense of things…Now is that really necessary?

Our discussion on Tuesday really had my mind working. When we began to talk about things making sense, and how it is hard for us to be able to come up with our own opinions since we are so used to people telling us “this is what it is and that is the finial answer.” Now we are able to make sense of things on our own and can think whatever we want about it without being lead into a certain direction, in most cases anyways. Than I started to think why do people always try to make sense of things why can’t we just read a book when we are done just have the simple thought of whether it was good, bad, or okay? Why can’t things just happen in our lives and instead of figuring out why it happened that way, just simply think that happened and now its done I must move on? I really don’t have an answer to these questions because I do this all the time in my life, and I read many books where throughout the entire book the main character is trying to figure out why they are in the situation they are dealing with. I’m not sure if I will ever figure out why so many people do this, but I was always be wondering.

The other thing that I really wanted to touch on was the discussion we were having about stereotypes on Thursday. One movie that kept running through my mind that shows so many stereotypes, Harold & Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay, and most have been brought on from the political aspect. It isn’t the best movie, but there is a ridiculously large amount of stereotypes. Here are just a few examples: a woman on a plane looks at Kumar and starts imagining him in a turban, another one is after they escape the police bring their parents in to be questioned, and they have a Indian translated and I think a Chinese translator, even after the parents start speaking English the head investigator still uses the translators to speak to them, and finally Kumar’ dad and brother are both doctor’s. These are just a few cases, but I am sure I could come up with many more if I watched the movie again. Although it is supposed to be a funny movie, it still shows these stereotypes and they had to come from somewhere. Unfortunately, its from our own government.

I didn’t bring it up in class because I hate bringing up my accident but, since it was such a big part of my life it is hard not to relate things to it once in a while. While we were talking about Boku being alone up north and how it started to go crazy, it made me think about how that really does happen. The things that he was doing, cleaning, reading, sleeping, and running all made sense to me. Although, I wasn’t able to do those things because I couldn’t walk after a while I started to get a little stir crazy like him, I knew everyone in my neighbors schedule from watching out the window, I needed someone to talk me for a walk in my wheelchair, and I needed to have contact with people other than my family everyday. So I can’t imagine how it was for Boku not having anyone to talk to for a few days in a row, even for a guy who doesn’t seem like he would care. The other thing that we talked about was time and how it over powers our lives. I think that it is one of those things we don’t realize the effect it is having on us. I think it was the opposite for Boku. Before he went up north time didn’t seem like a big thing for him, but than once he started on his journey it seemed like he mentioned time a lot. Like train times and how long it will take him to walk somewhere and finally having to wind the grandfather clock.

The most interesting thing that we talked about this week is the “Hard Boiled Detective.” I have never heard of this before. I can see how it relates to Murakami though. The book is in first person narrative for the most part, and just like the Hard Boiled Detective films it is pretty secretive, you only know what you need to know as you read. The other thing that I wanted to add was, when the group presented on Tuesday and talked about the musical influences Murakami has in his work it made me think of a person I met this summer. I met a person from Japan this summer. (He was the owner of the toner factory I worked in.) While talking to him I could tell he didn’t understand a lot what the people around him were saying, but as soon as we started talking to him about our music his eye lit up. Like Murakami he also likes CCR and the Beatles. It was just fun knowing that what Ricky was talking about I could somewhat relate to and understand.

While comparing Haroun to Wizard of Oz in class some of the things that I noticed that paralleled while reading were not discussed. The first was when we are introduced to the Water Genies on page 81; they reminded me of the munchkins from the Lollipop Gild. The next thing that I noticed was how Chup and Gup were somewhat like the East in West in the Wizard of Oz, Chup being the west and Gup being the east. Then I also noticed that some things reminded me of Alice in Wonderland. The first thing was that the Plentimaw Fish reminded me of Tweedledee and Tweedledum because of the way that they talk. The next thing was how the Gups’ army or “Library” was made up of actual Pages like in a book. That reminded me of the Queen of Hearts people who were made up of playing cards. (I’m not sure if I remember exactly correct because it has been a long time since I have seen Alice in Wonderland.) I also want to add that I really liked the phrase that you introduced us to “magic realism.” I am going to be sure to bring this idea into my classroom.

Watching the Bride and Prejudice movie was a very interesting experience for me. I found the movie to be very comical, but at the same time I was surprised that I found it somewhat enjoyable. Before I watched it I thought it was going to be a movie strictly about India and focused around India. I was happy to see that wasn’t the case. I liked the fact they brought together the eastern and western ideas together, that made the movie easier to relate to. In class being introduced to the word, Hybridity made everything seem to come together for me, since I was having trouble coming up with a word to describe it myself. After seeing that movie I am very interested to see what the book will bring.