April 13-20th Extra Credit Blog

I was expecting a format to follow that of “Schindler’s List” when we started to view “Rabbit in the Moon,” but I was surprised and glad to see that it took on a different route. I took notice of how carefully the film avoided comparing themselves to those of the Holocaust (although it seemed to be hinted at). I think it is good to keep the two separated, but equally as unfair to place more importance of horror over one or the other. The Japanese Americans were stripped of their rights and recognition as citizens of the United States and shattered the lives of their children and many generations to follow. I was disgusted to hear about the lady who had all of her teeth were pulled out before she went to camp. I was moved by the portrayal of individual stories and reflections on what the experience was like. I cannot imagine how families try to repair their status or life after their release because they were so separated and torn apart after the practices of the JACL. I like the film started to portray the lady who narrated the film not having children and giving two different explanations for not having children. From the beginning of the film it was cased why she made her choice. After hearing about her alienation, the many forms of discrimination, and about how as a child she lost respect for her parents. Obviously her childhood was so scared she could not imagine being a parent if fear of failing another child. I had not idea that those families lost of their savings and were given twenty five dollars after their “release.” What a slap in the face. Even though it would heal emotional scars, all of those families should have been able to sue the United States Government for the years they lost of their life and for having to live in such degrading living situations, even more so for the families who had loved ones pass. From the way the narrator spoke it sounded like she has spent the rest of her life trying to rediscover and figure out who she was after the devastation and suffering from the camps. It is appalling to know that things like this have happened in the United States and it was not even that long ago. For the narrator, I think finding her self identity is a process that she has to go through by tracking back the history and finding out some of the questions that still surrounded the camps. Since she was so young I can see how her quest for the knowledge takes so long and how difficult it would be to take another look at some of those details and reports as an adult. The documentary did a great job of portraying the array of impacts that these camps caused. I thought it was a great contrast when it talked about how other ancestries like the Germans were left alone as a community. It came down to easily identifying the Japanese race because of physical features. To me this is absolutely deplorable to think of the United States as coming so far against the notions of racism and have actions like this be so young in its history.

Monday April 13th - April 20th

Anne Carson’s ability to intertwine Greek Mythology with in the poetry setting and carry it on for the duration of the novel. It was interesting to see how Carson focused on the color red throughout the novel (also included in the title). Again, I love looking at the title of a book to see how the title is working throughout the novel. From the beginning the color red is a vibrant color that emanates and makes a huge impression throughout the novel. “Greyon was a monster everything about him was re” (Carson 9). The color red is associated with a monster. The snout was red, again a nose or snout is not the favorite part of a body, again associated with colors. Some sentences even have the color red present in twice in sentences. Carson really emphasizes the importance of color. Greyon’s death is associated with the color red, even his mind (which must be dark and forbidden) with that color. Heaven, on the other hand, does not mention red. I also love looking at her writing as far as what is all capitalized like (NIGHTS BOLLSNORTED); Carson’s way of emphasizing certain points is an amazing contrast to other writing points. When Carson gets into the actual meat of her poetry she writes so beautifully, it flows so even, and it carries its own tone. In the section “TUESDAY” her poem starts of “Tuesdays were best” so it emphasized the title and it was separated by but a break. She then dove right into why. I like how some of the italicize is like in the begging the questions of poetry then it moves into comments. The sentences are fun too, some continue on without end punctuation and pick it to the next. I think was keeps her work so contemporary is that each poem or section moves on with different standards. The punctuations and text style flow but vary from each work. One of my favorite I love the references to burros because they ears are always pointing the skies. I think this fun because the donkeys are what carried pregnant married and the cross represents where Mary riding on the donkey. So I think it is important to recognize as the donkeys as holly and looking up to the sky. This is a nice contrast between Greyon’s red and the burros and heaven. I thought that is was really interesting or a social comment on photos and still photography. I love the play against what pictures represent and what the stars represent. The stars are far away and this is the same sense as photographs. A picture and the moment that happened in this sense are so far away from the present it is so easy to look a photo and remember what times were even though things are far from. Then there is a sense of referring back to photos throughout the remainder of the novel, Carson just has an amazing way of referring back to points mentioned earlier in her novel.