Intro to multicultural literature

At the Toni Morrison roundtable event, I was shocked how many people showed up to the event. It proved that her books shaped and changed a lot of people’s lives. What I enjoyed most about the event was each English department professor shared their piece of inspiration from Morrison. 

One of the best speakers that I have heard was our professor, Dr. Savonick. When she spoke, it was almost as if she was Toni Morrison through her abstract descriptions and imageries. Toni Morrision made Dr. Savonick raise questions about womanhood. Some Revolutionary authors that influenced Dr. Savonick’s work of literature were Toni Cade Bambara, Adrienne Rich, June Jordan, and Audre Lorde. If I hadn’t gone to this event, I would have never known that my own English professor is working on publishing a book called “Insurgent Knowledge.”    What really caught my eye was when she said f

To extrapolate, I am so excited I got to experience an event like this, especially since I had no idea who Toni Morrison is. Hearing different perspectives from each speaker on how Morrison’s story affect them, made me want to read her novels. I would recommend that if there is another Toni Morrison event again, everyone should go. It is really engaging and interesting! 

I am so glad I got to experience an event like this, especially since I had no prior knowledge of Toni Morrison or any of her works. I also enjoyed hearing different things from each speaker and the effect her stories had on them individually. The first speaker talked about the impact reading these books had on him and the connection he made with his culture. He learned to understand his background and how to be conscious of who he truly is. 

Hearing all about how this author leaves you wanting more and wondering what happens next, learning to be okay without this closure most books give to the reader makes me want to find one of her best books and read it for myself. It is clear that Morrison is a feminist and hearing another speaker talk about how she writes about female friendship and fear of how powerful women become once they come together. The inspiration this author had on all the speakers at this event reflects how good of a writer she truly was. Another speaker talked about a student he had that didn’t grasp the story he had read but loved the discussions they had after. He said all that matters is that you are able to be transformed by the challenge the story brings forth. Another student was shocked by the graphics of this story and he said to her that nonfiction presents the surface, fiction like this gets to the heart. This event was so informative and I’m very happy I went. 

By Lindsay Czechowski

The memoir The Woman Warrior by Maxine Hong Kingston is a collection of stories about the author’s life growing up. The important things in her life were the “talk stories” her mother, Brave Orchid, told her growing up to “warn us[her] about life” (Kingston, 5). Progressing through the book Kingston begins to write more and more about these ghosts that constantly haunt her and her family. Ghosts typically represent people of the past that have died. In ancient China “ghosts were taken very seriously”because they were seen as beings that did harm to the living (Mark). Brave Orchid’s life was surrounded by ghosts. Kingston recognizes her not as “crazy” but as a “capable exorcist” because she was strong enough to fight off the ghosts (Kingston, 92). Because of Kingston’s mother, ghosts are a large part of Kingston’s girlhood even in America.

In the chapter Shaman, Kingston switches point of views between herself and her mother. Brave Orchid grew up in China and is the reason for Kingston’s thoughts and stories in this book. In the perspective of herself, Kingston refers to regular people as ghosts. This is interesting because the “talk stories” from Brave Orchid contained harmful ghosts that haunted her throughout life in China. Those stories differ from the thoughts Kingston creates about ghosts in her life. She replaces people with ghosts. She writes about being “regularly visited by the Mail Ghost, Meter Reader Ghost, Garbage Ghost,” all people in normal everyday life (Kingston, 98). These ghosts are not harmful to anyone yet Kingston continues to write about them as if they are, in turn copying her mother’s stories. It is said that ” in ancient China, they were reality whether one believed in them or laughed them off”(Mark). These stories are very real to the Chinese. Tales of certain deaths such as “the drowned one,” or Kingston’s aunt that killed herself and her baby, can haunt and “waits silently by the water to pull down a substitute” (Kingston, 16). The contrast between this mother and daughter duo is the severity of these ghosts within their culture. Kingston lives as a Chinese American not surrounded by the ancient Chinese beliefs causes her to make up stories like her mother’s. This behavior attributes to why the reading is confusing to the reader. Kingston writes about what she remembers from her childhood trying to explain these happenings as if she knows everything about them, however in reality she knows very little. This leaves the reader with little knowledge of what her stories’ purposes were.

These stories emphasize hidden thoughts of Brave Orchid. For example, while explaining a story about the garbage man that Kingston refers to as “Garbage Ghosts,” Brave Orchid refers to him as “the White Ghost” (Kingston, 98). Brave Orchid says, ” Now we know”and continues,” the White Ghosts can hear Chinese” (Kingston, 98). Why does she include that in the story? Does Brave Orchid have something against Americans? This contributes to why Kingston never feels like enough. In the chapter White Tigers Kingston says,”My American life has been such a disappointment” (Kingston, 45). Why did Kingston refer to her life as her “American life”? America was not what Brave Orchid was used to nor did she have her family there with her. Chinese traditions are up to her to continue on to Kingston. However, these stories make Kingston seem less than acceptable to Brave Orchid only because she is not fully Chinese. Although she married an American man she has unhappy feelings on white Americans, specifically, even compared to black Americans.

The ghosts are significant in Chinese culture and to Brave Orchid. These “talk stories” reveal a side to Brave Orchid and her actions towards Kingston. These are important to recognize because these stories about ghosts slowly begin to unravel the truth about Kingston’s life and stories as a female, Chinese American.

1. What was the purpose of including “White” and “Black Ghosts”?
2. Why does Kingston call machines and people “ghosts” growing up in her stories?

Works Cited

Kingston, Maxine H. The Woman Warrior: Memoirs of a Childhood among Ghosts. Vintage, 1989.

Mark, Emily. “Ghosts in Ancient China.” Ancient History Encyclopedia, Ancient History Encyclopedia, 29 Sept. 2019, www.ancient.eu/article/892/ghosts-in-ancient-china/.

“The Woman Warrior” is an autobiography written by Maxine Hong Kingston. Kingston displays her life in creative short stories throughout this autobiography. In the short story “Shaman,” she talks about her mother, “Brave Orchird,” and how her life was enticing and eventful. The ghosts haunt Kingston that her mother brought in her life, she paints an image for the readers about the conflicts that her relationship with her mother had brought her. There is a distrust that Kingston has within her mother, a reason for this distrust is from not knowing whether her mother had taken part in killing babies or not. Brave Orchird would describe to Kingston the common practice of killing baby girls by suffocation in a box of ashes. Kingston then suffers from nightmares about preventing babies from being killed. She said that she “would protect the dream baby, not let it suffer, not let it out of my sight. (86)” This could be a direct result from the shame that she feels from her mother, possibly killing babies without certainty. While her mother thinking that telling her these stories will help her self- esteem about being a woman, it does the opposite. Kingston’s dreams consume her about her saving the babies, and she always fails to do so, resulting in her questioning her sanity. Her dreams show how deep down Kingston is a good person and how influential her mother was on her. This also relates to how impressionable Kingston was in “No Name Woman” when her mother told her, “You must not tell anyone… what I am about to tell you.” That is additionally a difficult thing to ask of a child, and her mother continues to do this to Kington for her entire life. 

Another childhood fear that Kingston suffered from was about the expectations put on females, which started from her mother’s stories about female slavery. She had this intense fear that she was unwanted as a daughter and would be sold as a slave in her lifetime. This is yet another example of how Brave Orchirds stories instilled fear in her daughter and uncertainty about herself. She talks about how she does not want to go to China because she believes that in China, her parents would sell her. This could be a reason that she can only “smell” China and not see it. It could be her subconscious blocking out China because she believes it is a bad place. Kingston believed that her mother cared more about her slave girl than she did her daughter. She said, “My mother’s enthusiasm for me is duller than for the slave girl. (82)” When Kingston had said this, it shined a light on the fact that she is insecure about herself and believed that she was not good enough for anything, especially her mother. A mother’s approval is pivotal for a daughter’s self-esteem, and Brave Orchid damaged that for Kingston. Her telling this in a story form shows the beauty of storytelling since it paints her experience gracefully. 

At the end of the chapter, Brave Orchid says about the children who died in China that “No, you must have been dreaming. You must have been making up stories. You are all the children there are. (103)” to Kingston. This shows how she blocked out the trauma of them ever dying, which also relates to “No Name Woman” and how her family didn’t even honor her memory. This ultimately even makes her homeland unknown to Brave Orchid. The unknown can be a scary thing, especially with a young girl such as Kingston. Kingston displays her childhood in an enticing method that shows the magnitude of how impressionable she was to her mother’s stories due to the uncertainty of them.  

Discussion Questions:

1. What is the significance of the unknown in life? Especially in Kingstons life? 
2. What does Brave Orchid represent? How does Kingston view her mother?

We will go over this in class on Wednesday 10/2

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The book, The Woman Warrior by Maxine Hong Kingston is memoirs based on growing up as a Chinese woman. The first memoir, “No Name Woman” is very a powerful and painful piece. Kingston goes into extreme detail of how women were treated in Chinese culture and the harshness that came along with being a woman. Even to this day, women are always being viewed as lesser than men and unfortunately, they don’t have equal opportunities as men. This book shines a light on this issue of gender inequality that has been going on for hundreds of years. 

Kingston starts off the first memoir by diving into a horrific story that her mother told her when she was a young woman going through puberty. In this story, her mother tells Kingston about an aunt she once had that had brutally killed herself and her baby. The aunt had committed suicide due to the fact that she was having a baby without having a husband. This had been seen as shameful and unforgivable, no woman should be having sex and carrying a child if they are not married. The aunt committing suicide caused the family to neglect that there even was a daughter in the family. They were so disappointed with what she had done that they didn’t want to remember her. 

The family and the village were very aware of the growing baby bump but no one talked about it. They didn’t mention it because it would mean they would have to admit the shameful act she had done. Kingston recalls what her mother had once told her, “The village had also been counting. On the night the baby was born the villagers raided our house… At first they threw mud and rocks at the house. Then they threw eggs and began slaughtering our stock. We could hear the animals scream their deaths- the roosters, the pigs, a last roar from the ox” (5-6). Their house, animals, and food had been destroyed because what her aunt had done was so disgraceful. Not only did the aunt had to face the repercussions but so did the family. This horrible event of slaughtering and suicide had happened in the early 1920s and decades later Kingston’s mother is still warning her on what could happen if she disappoints the family. Kingston states, “Don’t let your father know I told you. He denies her. Now that you have started to menstruate, what happened to her could happen to you. Don’t humiliate us. You wouldn’t like to be forgotten as if you had never been born. The villagers are watchful” (5). This shows that a woman’s role in society hasn’t changed, they still have similar standards of being secondary to men. 

In Chinese culture, women were just there to listen to their spouse, look pretty, cook and clean. They weren’t viewed as people or as individuals. They had to bond their feet, to keep intact their tiny feet which would have been seen as beautiful but in reality, it was very painful and excruciating. Women had no say in what they could or couldn’t do, it was the men that were making the decisions. Even from the very beginning at birth, females are seen as inferior. Kingston states, “Mothers who love their children take them along. It was probably a girl; there is some hope of forgiveness for boys” (15). She is saying that if her aunt had a boy that things could have maybe been different. The baby could have lived a full happy life but because she was most likely a girl then she wouldn’t have had a good life. Kingston demonstrates in her book how unequal the two genders live. 

Discussion Questions:

To this day, are women still viewed as objects or lesser than men? How? 

Did Kingston’s memoir of “No Name Woman,” help you to understand what Chinese females had to endure in traditional Chinese society or only complicate it? 

“The Woman Warrior” is an autobiography written by Maxine Hong Kingston. This novel explores the depths of the imagination through storytelling and the creation of new stories. Kingston attempts to make sense of the stories that her mother tells her, the first of which being that she has a deceased aunt that she never knew. This news would naturally be a shock to anyone, and Kingston’s way of dealing with this confusion is to use her imagination to create a story about what she thinks her aunt’s life may have been like. Due to the fact that her aunt became pregnant by a man that wasn’t her husband, she became dead to the family. Kingston never meeting her aunt greatly impacts the validity of the story, and we wonder who is in her life when she recounts the story. This caused Kingston to come to her own conclusions about her aunt since she couldn’t talk to anyone else about her. Kingston creates the story and image in her mind that her aunt gave birth in a pigsty. The validity of this story is highly in question and could have easily been made up, however it is up to the reader to decide how much he/she believes is a figment of her imagination and how much is real, if any. 

Kingston’s mother opening up the story with “You must not tell anyone…” (1) is a very dramatic opening and makes for a mysterious and ominous beginning. Since Kingston has to keep what her mother reveals to her about her aunt bottled up, she becomes very curious. She imagines her aunt’s ghost walking around. This leads back to the cover of the novel, stating that the story is “memoirs of a girlhood among ghosts”. This evokes a sense of a presence/presences looming, as if Kingston feels as though she has been surrounded by ghosts her whole life. Maybe her mother revealing to her that she had an aunt that she was never aware of is freeing to her and her way of being curious is to use her imagination. This creates a focus on the imagination and that we can shape a story into whatever we want it to be. 

Kingston’s imagination tends to run on the wild side. She presents us with dark images and forces us to think about many upsetting topics. This makes the reader wonder how the obstacles that she has had to face in her life being Chinese-American has impacted her mental state. She may assume that her aunt’s life was miserable due to what her mother told her, however, a child tends to make light of a dark situation, and Kingston does not do so.

An interesting literary device that presents itself in “The Woman Warrior” is irony. The irony that can be noted in this story is that although the first words that Kingston’s mother says are “You must not tell anyone…” (1), Kingston continues to recount the events of what she believes her aunt went through. Kingston speculates and makes up stories about her aunt and imagines what her life would have been like. This is an interesting aspect of the story and allows us to wonder what made Kingston so curious. We can also notice 

Kingston wondering whether she is creating these stories to honor her aunts memory or to fulfill her own needs. Since we receive no background about Kingston, it is hard to make a conclusion about why she is so speculative throughout the story.

Discussion Questions:

1. What makes Kingston so inquisitive about her families’ past?
2. What does the cover “memoirs of a girlhood among ghosts” reveal about Kingston?

Sara Weber

Throughout the play, A Raisin in the Sun, Beneatha and Mama are revealed as fierce, intelligent, and strong-willed women. They are both women that push against the stereotypical women’s role during the 1950s. They are powerful however, their power is generated from different sources. Mama’s power is created from her maternal and conservative personality whereas, Beneatha’s power is created from her independence, passion for life, and desire to fulfill her dreams.

In Act 3, Beneatha states “that was what one person could do for another, fix him up – sew up the problem, make him all right again. That was the most marvelous thing in the world…I wanted to do that. I always thought it was the one concrete thing in the world that a human being could do. Fix up the sick, you know – and make them whole again. This was truly being God…I wanted to cure. It used to be so important to me. I wanted to cure. It used to matter. I used to care. I mean about people and how their bodies hurt” (113).

In this scene, Beneatha explains her reasoning being why she wants to become a doctor. She wants to give people medical attention which is one of the most genuine acts a human could ever desire. Majority of the time, especially in the 1950s, being a doctor was a male dominated profession. Beneatha does not allow this boundary to prevent her from fighting for what she dreams of. She uses her strong-willed and determination to prove to her family that she needs the insurance check to fulfill her dreams.

Beneatha’s mother, Mama, supports her in this dream and wishes she could help her daughter. However, Mama also has dreams of her own. She wants to use the insurance money to buy a bigger home to support her family. The home that the Youngers currently live in is way too small for their family, extremely old and run down, and has no room for Travis to play. Though Beneatha is going to school full time, Mama works full time to support four other people who also live in the house. Their home is way too small for a family of five but their home is built on “care and love and even hope.” (23) You can clearly see the hope that Mama has for the family but the conflict within the home is obvious.

During Act 3, Mama states “Lord, ever since I was a little girl, I always remembers people saying, “Lena – Lena Eggleston, you aims too high all the time. You needs to slow down and see life a little more like it is. Just slow down some.” That’s what they always used to say down home – “Lord, that Lena Eggleston is a high-minded thing. She’ll get her due one day” (139).

In this moment, Mama is blaming herself for dreaming too big. She believes that her dream of buying a bigger home is not the right way the insurance money should be spent. Mama and Beneatha have different opinions on how the insurance money should be spent. As mother and daughter, they tend to butt heads about many different topics including the insurance money, religion, and Beneatha’s free-spirit. Mama believes as long as Beneatha lives under her roof, Beneatha should be having respect for God and the morals that Mama has placed in the family household. However, Beneatha believes that she should not have to filter what she is thinking and her views.

Beneatha- “Why? Why can’t I say what I want around here, like everyone else?”

Mama- “It don’t sound nice for a young girl to say things like that- you wasn’t brought up that ​way…” (51).

Today, the feminist moment is more prevalent than it has ever been. Women have decided to take back their freedom of speech and be able to say what they want regardless of the reaction from men. As the #metoo movement has come to light, women have begun to support other women more and more instead of putting each other down. As of today, women have taken over the job force in the medical field with 78% of women working in the medical field.

Discussion Questions-

How have Beneatha and Mama helped you to see a different side of feminism?

Did you notice any parts in the play or movie where Beneath or Mama may have contradicted their feminist views?

Thanks!- Treasa

Our class conversations always steer towards the relationship between Mama, Walter, and Beneatha, and because perspective is key, analyzing Ruth’s character will most certainly shed some new light on the personality of each of her family members. Ruth offers an interesting perspective of Walter, Mama, and Beneatha because she has married into the family, and was not raised by Mama and Big Walter. Ruth’s outsider opinions and actions towards each member for the family are different because of the unique relationships she has with each of the characters. 

Starting with the matriarch of the family, the first scene of Mama and Ruth together really highlights some tensions in their relationship. Like when we meet all people for the first time, we make first impressions; our first impression of Ruth was a weary wife and mother that had little to hope for. Our first impression of Mama is a strong substantial woman who has defiantly stood the test of time. With this perspective of Ruth and Mama, it clearly puts Mama higher in the pecking order than Ruth, and it is even more evident in scene I; “Ruth: (Angrily) I feed My son Lena! Mama: I ain’t meddling…” (38) Mama continues to alienate Ruth for a few more lines after this one; she judges Ruth for the way she cares for her son and husband throughout out the play. What this scene shows about Mama, from Ruth’s perspective, is that she can be overbearing and righteous at times. Ruth is the only one who can give this unique perspective because Beneatha and Walter haven’t been undermined by Mama in the way Ruth has. Mama approaches Ruth differently than Walter and Beneatha. Mama sees their relationship as a mentorship, and becomes offended when Ruth doesn’t follow in her footsteps. This comes to a climax when Mama is telling her to keep her child. When Ruth subtly admits that she does not want to keep the child, Mama disregards it hastily with confidence that Ruth will eventually come around. When Ruth admits to Walter that she put down a deposit and intends to get rid of the baby, Mama doesn’t even look at Ruth; she, in a way, attempts to show Ruth how good of a Mother she is by just letting Walter put his own foot down. When that doesn’t happen and he walks out the door we see Mama’s character crack a little bit; we see how she realizes she may have not done such a good job at raising her children after all. Mama is a very complex character and her relationship with Ruth is imperative to see all of the important aspects of her personality.

Ruth’s relationship with, and opinions of Walter and Beneatha also prove to be fruitful. At so many points during the play, when Beneatha has done something silly or obtrusive, she commentates of the rudeness or fault of her actions in a way Mama wouldn’t. When Beneatha finds out Ruth is pregnant, Beneatha’s; reaction is less than polite; “Beneatha: Did you plan it, Ruth? Ruth: Mind your own business. Beneatha: It is my business- where is he going to live, on the roof?” (56). This reveals that Beneatha is quite self-absorbed at times, and despite her education, blind to everyone’s feelings and opinions. When Mama or Walter interact with Beneatha it doesn’t stand out as much because they are a family, and families fight and say things they don’t mean all the time. When it comes to Walter, Ruth’s relationship with Walter almost reveals more about Mama and Big Walter than Walter himself. The way that Walter treats Ruth at times reflects badly on Mama and Big Walter for raising him to be this way. What Ruth reveals about Walters character is his inability think more of others than himself; When Walter finds out that Ruth is having a baby and intends to get rid of it, it takes him days to come around and be there for Ruth because he is too wrapped up in his own life to consider that his problems might not be as important as someone else’s. The stages Walter is at in Growing up is also clearly measured within his marriage to Ruth. Ruth can only offer this perspective because the majority of way Mama treated Walter throughout the play only allowed him to act like a child; and as a result, the way he treated Ruth became a marker for the ways in which he had grown at every stage of the play.

Ruth is arguably the character with the most incite in the play as to who each of the characters are. Looking through her perspective at each of the characters will reveal more aspects of their personalities than we would find by just analyzing each characters’ own visions of themselves.

1. What other personality traits do you think Ruth brings out in each of the characters?
2. What about Ruth’s Personality brings out these unique personality traits in the other characters?
3. How would you describe Ruth’s character through the eyes of Mama, Beneatha, Travis, or Beneatha? (chose one)

Blog post by Adriana Murphy

A reoccurring pattern we see within Hansberry’s play, “A Raisin in the Sun” is her use of symbolism. While there are multiple occasions symbolism is present, such as with Mama’s plant, the insurance check, specifically, is used to represent the Younger family’s’ dreams and aspirations for the future. To a family that’s never had money like this before, the check gives them a sense of hope and every member has a different idea of what the money should be spent on. As a result of all these varying opinions a certain amount of tension is formed within the family, specifically between Walter and Mama. Up until this point Mama has been made out to be someone who believes in the importance of dreams, shown by her supportiveness in Beneatha’s goal of becoming a doctor. However, all throughout Act 1 she refuses to give Walter the time of day or entertain his idea of using the money to open a liquor store. This has an extremely negative impact on Walter and Mama’s relationship, as we see in both the literature and the film. This makes for a very unexpected but also heartwarming scene when Mama decides to give Walter the money to pursue his dream.

In the first half of the play, Walter and Mama have a very complicated relationship due to the difference in perspectives. The play makes Walter seem somewhat selfish and like he isn’t thinking of what’s really best for his family. However, the film gives more of an insight into Walter’s life when he isn’t in the family’s apartment. You see him at his job that he can’t stand, and you see him at the bar trying to come up with a way to convince his family that this liquor store would be a great investment for them in the long run. Walter truly believes that this is the way to get his family out of their current situation, and he’ll do anything to convince them of that. When Mama initially turns down the idea when the check comes, Walter is outraged. “Well, you tell that to my boy tonight when you put him to sleep on the living room couch…Yeah- and tell it to my wife, Mama, tomorrow when she has to go out of here to look after somebody else’s kids…” (71). This passage shows that Walter’s intentions are good, and he has his family in mind when thinking about using the money to open the liquor store. As a reader, you start to feel a sense of sympathy for Walter because he’s trying to save his family the best way he knows how, but can’t get anyone to listen to him.

One of, if not the best scene between Mama and Walter is when she decides to give him the money to open his store. The scene is played out a little differently in the film than it is in the play, but it has the same affect, nonetheless. In both versions, Mama and Walter have a heart-to-heart and Mama explains what was going through her mind when deciding what to do with the check. She makes Walter realize that she did what she thought was best for her family, but she now wanted to do whatever she could to support her son’s dream. “The rest you put in a checking account- with your name on it…It ain’t much, but it’s all I got in the world and I’m putting it in your hands. I’m telling you to be the head of this family from now on like you supposed to be” (107). This passage gives the implication that maybe Mama was planning on helping her son out all along, and just wanted to see how much money she had left after the house was purchased. Mama and Walter are both very strong characters, so even though sometimes they may not always see eye-to-eye, they always support each other.

Walter and Mama have an immensely complicated relationship throughout the story, but from the later scenes in the play you can see that both of them really just want what’s best for their family.

Discussion Questions

1. Do you think Mama had planned to help Walter out with the store all along and just wanted to make sure her plans for a house were taken care of first? If not, what do you think brought about the change of heart?
2. Did watching the film change your views on Walter?