Solomon 1

In the novel by Toni Morrison, “Song of Solomon”, you are thrown into a predominately black community in which racism is a major issue in the 1930’s & 40’s.  You start to learn about a bunch of major characters in the book as it paints the setting for the entire book.  Starting with Ruth giving birth to “Milkman” after the agent’s plunge of death.  This ties in later when milkman finds out that he cannot fly and loses interest in just about everything in his life because of this.

                The next main character in this book is Pilate who seems to be a savior or wise woman of some sort.  She is actually related to Macon Dead II as she is his sister, but from what I get she is a respected powerful woman who does not need material things and is clear of mind.  She has become one of my favorite characters in this novel. 

                There is a lot of family history in this novel between Pilate and Macon Dead II, then he beats his wife Ruth as they have a terrible marriage.  Macon Dead II seems to be like the black Mr. Scrooge as he walks down the street heartlessly taking their money with no remorse and only the satisfaction of receiving money.  Later in the story he spies on Pilate and is astonished by the children’s and hers singing showing that there is a soft spot in him somewhere.

                Gait was introduced early in the story and as a six seemed like a moderately intelligent individual especially in those days as he can spell out admissions.  Throughout the novel he discovers new ways and reasons why he should hate white people.  This is where milkman comes along as he later starts becoming really good friends with Gait and later meets Pilate because of this.  That is when the story starts to shake things up.

                This is when you learn even more about the family’s history and the reasons behind each character’s actions.  For example Pilate and Macon II are both Macon I’s children and when he dies they seem to of both went the opposite way with it as Pilate is not materialistic and is always happy and Macon II is obsessed with money and is ruthless.  Which is ironic because his wife’s name is Ruth and they have a terrible marriage.

Oscar 3

To understand Oscar and at the same time not worry about all the extra interior problems that is every woman in his life the author adjusts the perspective of the book his.  As Oscar’s roommate his junior year, Yunior, learns a lot about Oscar by just being around him and reading Oscar’s journal.  It is sad that someone who reads someone else’s journal did not know if they were thinking about committing suicide but that’s just the way the story played out. 

Yunior did this mostly because he was in love with Lola for a reason he did not know just one of those connections.  So being around Oscar the whole time trying to help him out every so often was to no avail as Oscar tended down his suicidal path with the woman.  At one point Yunior got caught up in his own “game” and it lead to his girlfriend finding out he has been cheating on her.

This lead to a lot of alone time with Oscar until one day he decides he wants to change Oscar’s life, at this point I was ignorant thinking that he’s going to lose the weight and eventually everything will be ok.  Although that did seem to happen it was short lived as Oscar went back to eating a lot and writing his novels.  Yunior eventually shunned him out making an awkward roommate relationship.

The last straw for Oscar was when he fell in love with a goth and eventually was head over heels for her.  This turned out just like the Ana situation where things once again got caught up and lead to him getting a bunch of sanctions and being known as crazier than ever.  From that point he attempted suicide after having a magical vision right before his leap, where he did not die but suffered a lot of physical damages.  Eventually as he healed up to a new man he in turn did lose some of the weight as well showing some progress.  Also Yunior eventually truly asks out Lola.

Oscar 2

                When you first start reading about Oscar you begin to feel almost an upbeat detailed description on how he progressed through his life.  When the story continues you seem to get another story about a depressed child who suffers from obesity and is obsessed sci-fi genres.  These combinations of issues lead Oscar to a stereotypical pattern in his life where he battled his self-conscious as well as girls.  The author allowed me to be drawn into the book interested if Oscar would somehow stumble across a miracle and solve the problems in his, but like reality things are not always that simple and although a drastic change is made the outcome of loneliness continued in what is debatably the right direction.

                This is where the author threw me for loop as I thought it was just a story about this single boy’s depressing life; Junot Diaz was able to build an environment in the second chapter through the eyes of the daughter Lola that put everything in perspective.  All of a sudden the story became less about menial everyday issues and more about a family’s struggle in a society that I could not grasp from my own experience.

                Diaz puts you in a much darker place from Lola’s perspective, as I continued to read I grew more and more depressed only to be intrigued on what is going to happen in the next chapter when Lola almost seems to find some solace.  Lola as a “typical”, according to the novel, Dominican daughter does takes care of everything around the house and raises her brother Oscar as her mom works two to three jobs.  It does not stop there as her mom is very abusive and continually demoralizes Lola physically and mentally, as this wear and tear continues on someone there is always a breaking point and when Lola hits hers all hell breaks loose.  She shaves her head, stops going to school, and eventually runs away from home to live with Aldo and his war shaken father which turns out to be an impulsive and terrible decision.  Oh and did I mention during this entire process her mom has breast cancer and is clearly going through kimo therapy and surgeries while trying to work two jobs.

                Even if you walked a hundred miles in someone’s shoes it can never satisfy their perspective or conscious of movement.  Even in the same household Oscar and Lola had two completely different stories which is insane to wrap your head around when you think of your brother or sister and to how much different their story is from yours.  But to get back what was discussed in the beginning of the story with fuku and relating it to story Diaz is telling you start seeing patterns.  Oscar cannot get a girl or lose weight always coming up a little short, the mother has breast cancer no husband and is working two jobs, Lola in her own right is rebellious against her mother “lost”, as well as their other relatives who have lost spouses and other tragedies throughout the book.

                As I think about this is this a result of fuku not letting them find happiness, or is it the environment in which they were born to fail and their society holding them back from individual progress.

Oscar 1

A key component to “The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao” is that there are footnotes throughout the novel.  These footnotes are a great feature because when you are talking about something that is not necessarily known to people or something that isn’t necessarily apart of your culture footnotes can help people integrate to the book easily.

When I saw that the word zafa was a counterspell to fuku it made this whole situation a little more out there.  Zafa might as well be like throwing salt over your shoulder it seems more of a peace of mind more than anything.  There are coincidences everywhere so I can see how people can relate things to each other and try and blame it on one thing in particular.   To say the footnotes are zafa is bold as the author does mention zafa in his text but not in the footnotes.  Maybe as I read on in this book I can better understand how zafa works because right now it seems like if you say it you are in the clear.

Introduction

To get you started on reading this blog you should know whose writing it, currently I am a junior at the University of Redlands and I just recently declared my major a couple of days ago in which I am going the business route.  To be more specific I am getting my B.S. in business administration which I should accomplish by the fourth year I am here at Redlands even though next semester I am going to be studying abroad in Salzburg, Austria.  I also play football  which I haven’t practiced in like 2 weeks because of this concussion but should be back soon but at the U of R if you don’t know we just beat the #4 team in the nation at D3 football… so now you know. 

The main purpose behind this blog is to track my thoughts in my ethnic poetry class and allow myself to express my opinions to the world from here in California to across seas over in Europe.  The reason why I took this class is simple I need the LAF which is another word for a general education course here at the U of R but do not let that deter you from reading this blog just like any other class there is something to learn and grow as an individual from, let it define me.  My intention is not necessarily to take what I am saying and use it in your own life but more window watch me and give you a chance to see how my opinions change and see how this class affects me.