Self Consciousness

The first time that I became self concsious about my height was elementary school gym class when we are playing basketball. We playing for the first time all year and so no one had any idea how we were as players. Right about the time when guys starting big, i stayed very small. My friend and i were always some of the last boys to be picked for basketball because we were so small. It did not matter how good we were because we just too short. It was not about passing, shooting, or dribbling, but about how tall you were. Because of this, I never really cared for basketball. It was the only sport I did not play through elementary school. It left such a deep impression on me at that age that I completely stayed away from it up to 8th grade where i decided to give it another shot because size was not as big a factor as skill or hustle. Basketball however, left a large impression on my life because it certainly made me aware of my size compared to that of my classmates and those around me.

Language

There is no doubt that language is of the most important parts of communication. In reading "How to Tame a Wild Tongue" by Gloria Anzaldua, we learn about the conflicts of language within our society. We see the consequences of supressing and keeping down something that is natural to express when Gloria is prohibited to speak and teach in her native tongue. We see that people cannot be supressed of something that is a part of who they are. To Gloria, her voice and the words she uses are a distinct attribute of her personality. Even more than her appearence, her voice and her language defines who she is. The idea of being silenced of her native tongue is something that she is not comfortable with because it is like silencing somethign that is the bare essence of who she is. The idea that language can define someones personality is something that is a new idea and one that i never really considered but it does make sense. Is is possible to pick someones voice out of a crowd of people? Of course it is. Language is very powerful and to be unable to express it can be very trying and i can understand why Gloria felt so passionate about her own voice and her own words.

Socks

In response to the illustrated story "The Socks", i was very impressed with the combination of the use of illustrations and story to portray an idea. Marjane uses black and white illustrastions throughout this story and I am not sure if she did this on purpose or if it was just the way it was eventually published but i thought that that was one of the most powerful aspects of the story. She writes about freedom and liberation Iran, specifically for women and the youth culture. I thought that by illustrating this point in black and white, she takes a new view at her argument. In the story, there are policemen and authourity figures that supress Marjane and her friends. The policemen make arguments about how women are different than men and yet to have them illustrated in the same color and same shading, they look very similar. I though that this could have been a ploy to present a view of how everyone is eventually equal because underneath our outside layers, its just as simple as black and white.

St Stuttering

Brianne brings up a good point. What would we do if we could not speak? I think it is a very intersting question because we always take our voice for granted. I wonder just how different our society would be if we could not speak and we had to rely on a completely different means of communication. I think that even if we stuttered all the time, our lives would be completely different. I mean, we all have times when we are not sure, but what if that was all the time? Just picturing that in my mind would be like some crazy ass science ficiton movie where everything was written out in words. I can't even picture it because we rely on our voice so much. Even as babies, we use sounds and gestures to show what we need. I feel like even though stuttering is not silence in any way, it is definately a form of silence. Being articulate is something we take for granted and while you are still very capable of being articulate with a stutter, it is far more difficult. So in further reflection of what I would do if I could not speak, i would have to say that I would truly do my best to not be different person. I know that part of being silent would be motivation to make myself head in some way but that would be very difficult to find that motivation.

Breasts

In reading "A Few Words About Breasts" I found an interesting outlook on growing up and becoming an adult. The author takes us through her adolesence including her first period and her sexual experience. I thought that it was a unique and very personal essay that took a different look at growing up in the eyes of a woman. The character who I liked best was her mother who discouraged the author from buying her first bra because she took a lot of pride in her own breasts. I thought that was a unique twist to the classic story of growing up because she actually discouraged her daughter getting older. The story did not talk about other aspects of growing up, such as maturation of the mind. To read about a girl growing up just from physical, sexual standpoint was something new to me. But this story was a good example of the importance of image even as a child and someone who expects something to happen but never does. All in all, it is another example of how conscious we are as a race in what we look like and how our body is seen.

John Updike's At War With My Skin

In reading John Updike's At War with My Skin, I was very intrigued by the story all the way through. The story is a personal reflection on Updike's experiences with psoriasis, a skin condition that occurs in people when they are not exposed to enough sunlight. The structure of this story was interesting because it was a biogrophy of sorts but it felt very different because I was not certain that it was actually Unpdike who the story was about. I thought that the writing was done extremely well and he had many lines that stuck out in my mind. As Updike wrote about dealing with psoriasis and adjusting his life to conceal it, we learned a lot about the importance of image to him and others with the disease. The line about being forced to a mirror was very powerful becuase it showed how consumed by his image Updike actually was. He actually wrote this line when he mentioned that he passed the disease onto his daughter which was devastating to him. I thought that the story he told about getting discharged from the army was interesting because like he said, a skin disease would not stop him from killing someone. But I found the reaction by his mother to be more surprising because she was actually upset that he could not be in the army because she felt at fault.
If anything, this story is a great example of the stress that diseases put on the family life. The pressure that Updike talked about with getting married and having kids early becuase he did not want to miss his chance. It was very powerful to read about how consumed one could be by a disease that is not even fatal, just one that simply effects ones complexion.