Thi's Relationship with Má

Throughout the graphic novel The Best We Could Do, the author, Thi Bui describes the convoluted relationship she has with her mother, Má. On the very first page of the book, Bui mentions that Má was not in the room while she was giving birth. This immediately lets us know that her mother being there was very important to her. Throughout the first chapter, Bui continues to mention this. As the book continues, we see more of Bui’s relationship with her mother and exactly what Má represents in Bui’s mind.

Bui says that it is harder for her to write about her mother than it is for her to write about her father because, “[Her] image of [Má] is too tied up with [her] opinion of [herself],” (Bui 131). She then proceeds to say that her mother was a prettier version of herself. From listening to Má’s stories about her past, Bui knows that her mother was a very smart and driven young woman who could have accomplished whatever she wanted to. Having a parent that you feel will always be better than you would be very hard on Bui; especially when you consider more aspects of their past. On page 57, Bui wonders if her parents have ever looked at her with disappointment. She wonders if she and her siblings could make up for the loss of their sisters. This puts even more pressure on Bui to fulfill her mother’s wishes and to live up to her expectations. This is why I believe that Bui mentions Má so much throughout the text with so much emotion behind it.

A Good Cat is Hard to Find

[While Pitty Sing the cat seems to just be a normal cat in the short story A Good Man is Hard to Find by Flannery O’Connor, it is actually a symbol of havoc.] When the reader is first introduced to the cat, the grandmother expresses her fear of leaving the cat alone due to the fact that it might cause a gas leak in the house, “She was afraid he might brush against one of the gas burners and accidentally asphyxiate himself.” This is the first sign the readers are given to indicate that the cat often causes trouble. The next time the cat is mentioned is right before the family gets into a car crash. Pitty Sing was startled by the grandmother and jumped on to the drivers back, “Pitty Sing, the cat, sprang onto Bailey's shoulder.” This caused the family to get into an accident setting into motion the main conflict of the story. The next, and final, time the cat is mentioned is right after the grandmother is shot. The story reveals that the cat had been rubbing itself on The Misfit’s leg during the interactions the family had with The Misfit, “...he said, picking up the cat that was rubbing itself against his leg.” These sections from the story all reference Pitty Sing the cat before, during, or after something bad has happened. Him being the direct cause of disaster in the first two segments and him being present in the latter. It is clear to see from this that O’Connor used Pitty Sing the cat as a symbol of disaster and havoc.

OHP Reflection

The interview I conducted with Mr. Powers was only the second interview I had ever done. When I conducted my first interview, the interviewee was very talkative, so I had no issues getting a long interview from her with only a few questions. The interview with Mr. Powers was just the opposite. One of the reasons our interview with him was so short was because we based a lot of our questions off of false information we had about him. We were then forced to work off of the few other questions we did have. We had follow up questions for his answers, but we still were not able to get enough information from him. When we interviewed Mrs. Powers, we were much more prepared and were able to get a longer, more in-depth interview from her. We learned that you should not base all of your questions from one piece of information and that the more specific the question, the better. When you ask very general questions, you tend to get very general answers, and therefore short ones. When you ask specific questions, the interviewee will give longer answers with a lot of detail. Plus you can ask a lot more specific questions than you can broad ones.

This project was my first time working with a group larger than five people. While working in a large group had its benefits, I found the process overall to be much more challenging. In order to evenly divide the work, we decided to split up into small groups and have the individual groups dictate what each person would be doing. That worked for the groups that had been assigned to do the individual interview pages and the group that created the website. However, there was still a lot of confusion in the group that was assigned to make a video for the home page. They were not sure exactly what they were doing and how it fit into the project in relation to all of the other things we were putting on the website. I feel that a lot of the confusion surrounding the project could have been resolved if there was a project leader to manage all of the different groups. With the way we had the project structured, there was no one who could take on this role without having another person in their group take on extra work. However, if we had designated somebody to be the project leader from the beginning, then we could have divided the work differently. I feel that for all future group projects that involve the entire class section, it should be mandatory to have a project leader to ensure that everybody knows what they are doing and that the project runs smoothly.

Why Marjane's Marriage Failed

Although at first Marjane’s relationship with Reza seemed perfect, there were actually many issues in their relationship from the start. When they first met at a party, Marjane was intrigued by Reza because he had fought in the war. Reza took interest in Marjane because he wanted to be with a light-hearted girl. The image they both had of each other was an altered version of their personalities. Reza thought that Marjane would be a nice girl that would make herself up and wear nice clothing. Marjane though that Reza was a war hero who was brave and strong (Satrapi, 279). When neither of them found what they were looking for in the other, it caused some resentment between them. Reza would always make comments on Marjane’s appearance, so she felt that she had to make herself up to please him (Satrapi, 285). However, when she did he still was not pleased (Satrapi, 287). In Reza, Marjane could not recapture the war she had missed while in England and was therefore disillusioned by him.

Even though neither of them lived up to the expectations of the other, they stayed together because of the excitement of being in a relationship -that did not guarantee marriage- at the time. Their liaison was against the Regime, and since they both liked to rebel, they unconsciously made the choice to stay together despite their differences. Even the reason they got married was not because they truly loved and wanted to be with each other, but they married for convenience (Satrapi, 312). Looking back on the timeline of their relationship, it is clear to see why their marriage ended in divorce.

A Change in Worlds

In 1984 the difference between Iran and Austria was colossal. The change in culture of moving from one to the other would be drastic for anyone, especially for a young girl like Marjane. However, Marjane did not seem to have as much of an issue adjusting as one would think. When she first moves to Austria, her main challenge is not adjusting to life outside of Iran, it is finding a place to stay, speaking a foreign language, and making friends, nothing unusual for someone moving to a new country (Satrapi, 155-205). She did not have any issues adjusting to life without a veil, nor was she unaware of Austrian culture. Most likely, the reason Marjane was able to almost seamlessly adjust was because she was not sheltered from the outside world while she was in Iran (Satrapi, 130). Her family was by no means fundamentalist and she had also been outside of Iran a couple of times (Satrapi, 77). Therefore she was able to switch from a culture with very strict ideals to one that was very westernized with ease.

Fahrenheit 451? More Like Fahrenheit Four-Fifty-Fun!

Fahrenheit 451, written by Ray Bradbury in 1953, tells the incredible story of a dystopian future where everything is censored. There is only one source of media available to the public and all books are illegal. The main character, Guy Montag, is a fireman who has always followed the status quo. A fireman’s job is to burn down houses that have books in them rather than put fires out. Montag’s life changes when he meets a young girl named Clarisse while walking home one night. Clarisse does not act like the other kids her age. She questions society and why things are the way they are. The things she says and the questions she asks are insightful and make Montag begin to question his way of life. When Clarisse asks a question that causes Montag to evaluate his relationship with his wife, his way of thinking starts to change. One day, while his fire squad is burning a house, he steals a book. Not knowing how to understand the book he has, he contacts a secret expert to help him. Montag’s newfound passion for reading and change leads him to blow his cover and results in him running away forever.

Bradbury creates fascinating and unique characters. Although he does not spend much time developing the characters, he does create conflicts within their personalities. For instance, the main antagonist is the chief fireman who hates books and believes that they are no good, yet he constantly quotes them. Montag’s wife is always very happy and loves to have fun, but she has bouts of sadness, and it is unclear whether or not she tried to kill herself. The writing style Bradbury uses in this book is very interesting. He throws you into the middle of an event and then explains what had happened. An example of what this looks like is, “The blow was quick. She started running. As she turned the corner she looked back at the man she punched in the nose”. Although it made it difficult to understand, sometimes it was an interesting change of pace from what you normally see.

This book has lasted incredibly well throughout the years. Bradbury often mentions the people in the book not being connected with anything and living loveless lives. He also describes the ongoing wars in the world and electronics that would have been unheard of in the 1950s but are everywhere today. This creates a world that is very close to the one we have today. In the book, it is revealed that the reason books were banned and the people were sheltered from the world was because people started to lose interest in literature. They just wanted to watch TV and receive fast entertainment. Eventually, the government took away what nobody wanted in the name of keeping the people happy. It was said that the contents of the books would make people think and be sad. This is the path that America is on today, with more and more people losing interest in books and turning all of their attention to visual entertainment. My explanation really does not do this book justice. There are so many layers to this book and I can not explain them all in a single blog post. I believe that everybody should read this book to warn them of the danger our future holds if we do not change the course we are on.

Favorite Reading

My favorite book that we read this school year was The Odyssey by Homer. I have not liked Greek mythology books or movies in the past so I was shocked by how much I enjoyed reading this book. I really liked the way the plot was paced and how the story progressed. My favorite part of the book was when we got to learn what happened to Odysseus before he was trapped on the island with Calypso. I can see why this story has lasted through many generations. My least favorite reading was the poetry section. Although I did like most of the poems we read, I preferred focusing on a certain book for a few weeks rather than looking at multiple poems per class. Overall I really enjoyed the things we did in class this year. There was not one book that we read that I could not stand to read.