Drown by Junot Diaz

This was an interesting read concerning culture. I was lost in one area or I just didn't get the relevance of the information that Junot Diaz presented. This area concerned the boy who wore the mask. I understood that the first time this was addressed that it was the experience of the narrator when he was a child. However, when it was mentioned later on in the book I just didn't get the relevance or the meaning. Why would this narrative concerning a young man's life would drift back to this. The only thing that I could think of was that it is relevant because it concerns assimilation into society and how it is different for everyone depending on your background, culture, and position in society. I liked how the author integrated Spanish vocabulary into the text. This definitely aided in showing what role culture plays in someone's life. The last tale concerning Ramon was especially interesting because it showed how hard this man wanted to become Americanized. He went to America unable to speak English, yet he succeeded in this task over a period of time. The jobs that it describes him working are so real, especially for people who are attempting to assimilate into American society. The description of the places Ramon had to live because of the jobs he held was also a reality. I somewhat understand Ramon's relationship with Nilda because he was wanting to assimilate his family into society, but did he have to have children with her. I'm sure over time it was difficult to be away from his family; however, was it necessary to spend money at the bar instead of saving money to bring them into America to offer them a chance at a better life? Even though he had other children with Nilda, he never really had a true love for her. I really don't think he had true love for his first wife or those children. If one did, how can you just forget that life existed? He often refered to this life and how life back home would save him, yet when he had the opportunity he let it pass him by. Perhaps because it was too much after too much time had passed. I also like how Diaz described all the different living environments, especially when describing the campo and how the tia and tio lived there. Very realistic and saddening. In doing this, it is clear who the people involved defined themselves and their own identities.

Slave Moth

Thylias Moss did an excellent job writing her book Slave Moth. This story about Varl's escape from slavery is written in such a way that readers can actually imagine having to live this type of life. Not only do the readers imagine this with the descriptive symbols and metaphors that Moss used, but the above literary devices makes it possible to emotional about Varl's situation along with understanding the way Varl's mind thinks and why she thinks the things she does. There are many things that define the character of Varl. The schooling that Esmenda provided for interested slaves shows not all people felt that slavery was right, and felt that all people were entitled to some sort of education. Of course, this was not the feeling of most people and many would go to whatever extreme necessary in order to keep this from happening. This is true of the Mr. Littleton who threatened Esmenda by doing threatening things to keep her farm from producing and as a constant reminder of what would happen if he felt she was continuing with what he felt was nonsense. Because Mamalee knew her literacy was intimidating to Mr. Littleton, she played along with acting unintelligent because this is what many in society not only wanted to see during this time, but it is what they believed in. This fear made it difficult for Blacks to move ahead. If people are faced with fear and it affects how they act, then of course this will define a big part of their character. This indeed did define part of Varl's character. Moss also demonstrated how children had the same outlook as their parents. She did this through the character of Lusa, Peter Perry's child. This child not only cut Varl down whenever she felt like it, she also tried to threaten her with Dob and insinuated that she could make life very difficult for Varl just by talking with her father. This would be very difficult to take especially when one knows they can't do anything about the situation, except to plan escape in order to seek freedom. I liked how it was written in verse and think this only made the story better.

Mossman's cultural identity

Mark Mossman describes cultural identity as something one discovers, especially over a period of time. Cultural identity is developed because of many things that are present in our lives, and the many different masks we all were as ourselves. Mossman speaks of a friend's father who coined him the one-legged wonder because of all the physical activities he could do along with how this child met these challenges head on and succeeded. This name definitely played a huge role in Mossman determining what his own cultural identity was. Even though adolescents struggle with their own person identity, many things that make up their identities are formed from their earlier childhood experiences. For Mossman, a big part of his identity was not only his disability, but was also how others viewed him with this disability, how he played several different roles concerning his disability along with the different audiences and how they treated and looked at him. Mossman is well aware of the different roles that he played and how this aids in his identity. He talks about what he considers is the normal side of him. When doing this he is speaking of how he seems normal to others, especially when he is sitting down with his artificial limb intact. Here he plays a role of the average person. However, Mossman played several different roles depending on the situation, the people he was dealing with, and of course, what he considered to be the desired outcome for him. While trying to sell papers in order to make some extra money, he wore shots and removed the artifical limb in order to play on the consumers sympathies. This of course worked. During this role, he was a disabled and disfigured boy. He used this role to not only because it was true that he was disfigured due to medical problems, but he also used this role to get sympathy from people as well. This disability is a big part of his life, but it is not the only thing that defines who he is. Because he went to church, religion became part of his identity. Even though he says he was speaking to God, he admitted that he was actually speaking for himself. While he is the one-legged wonder though, he takes on the role of being brilliant despite his disabilities. Yet when he is sitting down working with something, he takes on the role of normalacy. Mossman's description of all these different roles clearly demonstrates how identity is made up of many different things.