ginamarien

The Secret Garden: Spring Reading

The weather has been great this week and I’ve finally been able to enjoy my readings outside. The Secret Garden was the first read outside. Fitting, too, considering the weather changes in the text.

This read was literally succulent. I love the language and how it picked up on the minuscule things- like how she’d fight against the wind who’s force is like an invisible giant. Or the subtle ways Mary’s eyes would light up when she discovered, well, humanity-sympathy-humility.

Compared to her “socially acceptable” looking parents, Mary was born a disagreeable looking child. I looked at the first chapter with a feminist lens especially – because the qualities that deemed her unworthy were characteristics that a woman, in general, are socially expected to have – beauty to woo, be chased, desired, like her mother. It’s so wrong to put those expectations on a baby – those expectations deprived her of the experience of parenthood. Despite that, I think her Ayah did an ok job of raising her. She raised Mary correctly when you think about the standards of wealthy individuals in general. She was made to be spoiled and wasn’t ever made aware of her apparent “ugliness” or the pity people held over her. It is awful to me that this kind of thing happens. When I think about persons with a disability, people will purposefully try to filter or even hide their disability from them. As if their own disability could hurt them more than the people who shut them into a box. Therefore, she couldn’t find out why people disliked her so much or why kids had more fun than her. She simply reciprocated what she knew.

Lastly, I love the use of the “Moor” and how it is like a metaphor for her own growth. Martha as a character is great for Mary’s character development. She learns that every meal should be appreciated and to make use of the environment around her, as well as basic respect in conversation. I also think Martha fleshes out a lot of other problems like racial stereotyping and class privilege.

Without knowing, Martha makes assumptions about Indians as a collective and keeps calling out their “exotic wonders,” like elephants and whatever else. She keeps saying how she and her family can revel in how interesting this country is. A lot like gossip.

Then, there are contrasts of “humble living,” talk about kids who are lucky to fill their stomachs, and kids who wear rags for clothes but still play and laugh. Martha talks about this and helps Mary have insightful moments.

#forfunblog

Nondisabled Demands and Mental Illnesses

“Nondisabled Demands” reminded me of how mental illnesses, much like disabilities in general, can be turned into a “situation” in which the tables are turned: the disabled person is no longer valid for their feelings, and they’d be better of they if just got out with it. Spill your heart on the table – everything that makes you, you – otherwise, you are hurting the people who are “trying” to help you.

Sometimes people aren’t ready. Sometimes, the right people aren’t coming to you, or they’re coming at you from a completely wrong angle. No matter the excuse of “we’re trying to help,” “I know somebody (like the uncle) who has experienced (say…) depression… We know how you feel.” It’s clumping all people with disabilities into a box and neglecting their individual experience. This negative type of intervention style is so common, and despite many persons who might try to help, the lack of understanding, frankly – nosiness, – is suffocating. People don’t owe anybody an explanation for their experiences in life.

little tiny mini munchkin blurb

Gina-Marie An’s Response to Harper Lee’s To Kill A Mockingbird: The “Different” Characters

The text starts out by introducing Scout’s family and how they fit in their Southern town, Maycomb. Right away, Scout’s brother is a character that is visually different than others – Jem broke his arm and his arm is described as being “somewhat short than his right” (3) But, despite becoming slightly different in this way, he is described by Scout as not caring at all as long as he can pass and punt around (3). I think Dill’s wittiness matches this carefree attitude Jem has. When Jem teases him about his height, Dill says, “I’m little but I’m old.” (7) It’s very characteristic of how he feels about being noticeably small at seven years of age. That is not the only way he is described as different, though. Scout portrays him as “a curiosity,” (8) with “snow white hair.” (8) It seems like Dill might have albinism, but it isn’t obvious in the text because Scout and Jem’s don’t have out-loud reactions to that specific part of his appearance. I think children are not born to be prejudice – they learn prejudice through adults. They are, however, born with curiosity and it was clear that Scout did think a lot about Dill’s appearance. It didn’t impact their friendship though. It’s brushed off and soon enough, the couplet becomes a trio.

I think this is important to think about – how the text is in the young child’s perspective. I know there may be arguments about how kids bully or how kids are inherently scared if a person is drastically different from them. But that is rooted in our parenting and culture, to be afraid of what is different. And that is seen all of the time in people with disabilities.

The man in the house is possibly a misunderstood character who can be looked at from a disabled perspective – and I think this character will be built onto more as the story goes on – the Radleys from “The Radley Place.” There are a lot of negative connotations and rumors going around about this “peculiar home,” stories of attempted murders and creepy faces staring at you through the window. Calpurnia also seemed to dislike him and spat at the sight of him – but he is sick. He is literally dying. From a disability perspective – I thought, perhaps he might be mute, as he never spoke to anybody… and he is further isolated as the townfolk don’t take the time to know how sick he is and to what extent. When his older brother takes his place, the children make a game out of touching this “haunted” house, but nobody really knows who this Mr. Nathan is all about.

I’m also interested in chapters 2 and 3, as we are introduced to characters that the narrator does have definite prejudice against. It is very straightforwardly described by Scout: these characters deserve less because they already have less. I’d like to start with Walter Cunningham, the farm child whose family was economically shot. Lee writes them out to be sympathized with: they don’t accept anything they can’t pay back, they’re very righteous. Yet, because this is made normal in Maycomb town, the young girl Scout thinks that is what he deserves because he is already made out to deserve less in their town.

Then when you think there can be no one less well off than Walter, the author introduces us to Burns Ewell who is even less fortunate than Walter. Scout’s conceptually thinking the same thing here- that he deserves what he is – a filthy, mean boy… and the reader may wonder how or what it feels like to be him; poor and unwanted by everyone around him… may even pity him. Yet, all of the first graders don’t pity or care at all – they all console the hurt teacher and give her their sympathies for how awful the child was, not even giving a second chance to sympathize over his situation. And it’s not a surprise – this is his third year in first grade and it’s obvious the system and the town have made this the boy’s reality. And Lee beautifully frames the idea of societal constructed prejudice when talking through Atticus… “You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view-until you climb into his skin and walk around in it.” (33)

Word count: 730

I pledge. Gina-Marie An.

Oscar Wilde Fun

I really liked The Star Child – I have actually never read Oscar Wilde’s short stories (I know, I’m terrible) but there is a real beauty in the way that he articulates meaningful messages, like in this one, to not “judge a book by its cover,” or, “you won’t appreciate what you have until it’s gone.” I thought of this in a general sense as the moral story of appreciating parent to child relationships. For example, when children grow up to be adults, some lose appreciation for their parents. Then, as they grow older, they realize they too are becoming old. They begin to wish for the relationship they had before with their parents.

Now, to talk about what interested me from a disability perspective. The mother. This is something I’ve seen in a lot of older adults in their life – that their age in itself is disabling them. Especially if they are financially unwell off or are in circumstances you cannot control in life. You can see this in jobs, in relationships, and even in families. People give up on older people. There are fewer opportunities and credibility given to older people because they… should already have their life together, undesirable, easily drifting into the background. I think this representation could especially be seen in the boy. I thought of it as his age was, in a fantasized way, accelerated. Then he, too, was ugly.

A critique I would say is that, just because he can “relate” to his mother in the end, it doesn’t mean that he should just all of a sudden be handsome again. Yes, it could be a lesson of, “if you were in my shoes,” but oftentimes for people with disabilities, their disabilities are invisible and it is harder for people to get a perspective of their experience. As we talked about in previous classes, disabled persons may not be represented medically or in “first person.” Or, their disabilities are visible and people look away in fear, disgust.

Elizabeth Brewer and Frankenstein

When I was reading the parallels made between madness and disability, I kept thinking about the Creation and how he would fit between these two distinct terms or labels, disabled and mad.

Frankenstein’s “evil” (murders) manifests from the anger and resentment he feels towards Victor, who we’ve described in class as the stereotypical mad scientist. The Creation as a “mad” individual, instead of a disabled individual, can definitely be argued based on how Victor has neglected and segregated the Creation.

As a “mad” character, his acquirement of self-dependency, a wealth of knowledge, and even superior strength… automatically makes him more of a threat to society than before. This is also seen when Victor contemplates creating the mate for the Creation. He fears the potential control that they could have. (this also screams Linton’s Reassigning Meaning… passiveness: disabledness and contol: abledness.) Victor doesn’t want to understand the Creation and would rather him be passive and easy to manipulate; he would rather the Creation be dead. As the creator, this could really highlight how psychiatric institutes would drive mentally ill or disabled persons to an even more unstable state. I think it is interesting to look at the Creation through the lens of the doctor/patient perspective. Like, the humanitarian aspect of just wanting to be seen and wanting to improve c/s/x livelihood is similar to how the Creation just wanted a better living standard.

The Creation truly just wanted to be recognized and have their own identity and relationship with Victor. Brewer talked about embodiment and I think that section of the text would explain this idea well. There was this idea of, “individuals are labelled rather than individuals choosing their own labels.” and the Creation simply wanted to be seen as the moral and sensitive creature he was rather than the monster he was made out to be.