James's Blog

 Min Jin Lee's writing style in Pachinko  is incredibly unique. I can't remember the last time I encountered a novel told from a third-person omniscient point of view. This allows Lee to write about all of the characters effectively and give the reader a more intimate perspective of each character. I really enjoy this writing style choice because I like knowing what each character is thinking and doing so I can understand everything in its context as best as possible. In terms of writing style, Pachinko reminds me the most of Tommy Orange's There There. In his novel, Orange weaves in multiple different characters in the storyline which allows the reader to understand the thoughts of each character. Lee does this in Pachinko, too. However, one main difference between the two novels is that Pachinko  uses third-person omniscient while There There  has multiple narrators since each character talks in first person in their respective sections. Also, the events that take ...

To start, Sunja's relationship with Hansu was very toxic. Hansu is a more manipulative partner who is not particularly kind or respectful towards Sunja. Isak was very different from Hansu as he is described as being kind and respectful towards Sunja. Also, it is noted that Isak wishes to follow a more traditional Japanese path towards marriage. This means not interacting much with Sunja before their wedding. I think that this adds to Isak's character. In this time period, a man who wants a traditional path towards marriage was viewed as more respectable and thoughtful. Also, the fact that Isak wants to support Sunja while pregnant with another man's child shows how kind Isak is. It is pretty crazy that the author had all three of these characters not only meet again, but live in the same place. I wonder if there will be tension between Hansu and Isak since Hansu was the earlier lover. Also, how will Sunja approach living with her lover and her former lover? How will Hansu r...

 Equiano included many letters towards the end of the final chapter. Throughout the narrative, Equiano attempts to prove his character to his primary audience, English people. Equiano is a curious and resilient character who continues to try to persuade his English audience to abolish slavery. He is a master of understanding his audience. He includes letters that he wrote to the lords, to the Queen, etc. Finally, after all the letters, Equiano ends the narrative with a closing argument in favor of abolishing slavery. Again, since he is playing to his audience, Equiano talks about the economic benefits of ending slavery rather than the humanitarian reasons for doing so. Overall, it is clear that Equiano is trying to reach out to a largely English audience. From an English person's perspective, Equiano is an intelligent African person who has adopted what they believe to be a superior religion (English) and language (Christianity). Equiano continues to build his ethos with his audien...

 The Equiano group did a great job organizing their presentation.  I learned a lot about the rise of the Benin state in Africa. It was interesting to learn about all of the tactics used to capture slaves, round them up and take them to Benin. One of the popular tactics used was a surprise attack.  Another interesting thing I learned about from the presentation was the Middle Passage. It's incredible that Equiano was able to successfully face the adversity of the Middle Passage. The presentation described the horrid living conditions: median 6 feet, 4 inches of living space for each person. I can't believe Equiano was able to persist and continue to fight for his liberty. In those circumstances, I would have lost a lot of hope and I don't think I would have been as resilient as Equiano. 

 I have not started my final project. To be honest, the final project has been one of the last things on my mind the last few weeks. Towards the end of the second week of the quarter, I chose to do a literary interpretation on the class system in The Secret River . I am excited to do this topic because I am interested in how the class system differs in specific cultures. I also think it could be interesting to examine a particular area's economic success and see if that correlates at all with the installed class system. While I have given my topic some thought, I still have done absolutely no research. I was in the Grenville group, so I jumped into a big project right away and haven't had much time since to get going on research. As for research questions, I wonder has anyone met with Kelsi the librarian yet to discuss research? If you have, was it helpful? 

 I enjoyed spending time in the Archives and Special Collections on Thursday this past week. In particular, I liked looking at all of the texts and images associated with the texts using the magnifying glasses. It was crazy how I could see precisely how everything was laid out on the page with the high-intensity magnifying glass. It surprised me that some of the older texts were in as good condition as they were. I examined the difference between one of the pieces of parchment and the papers handed out in class to mark down our findings. Obviously, the papers handed out to us were printed out in the library fairly recently. The other text, however, was printed hundreds of years ago. What shocked me was how much cleaner the older piece of paper was than the new printer paper. Also, using the high-intensity magnifying glass, I could see that the ink was much neater and more precise on the older piece of paper than the handout paper given to us. I don't understand how people could pri...

 To be honest, Thursday's class was the first time I've heard the word "transculturation." This term describes when a minority or marginalized group takes an aspect from a majority group's culture to use it for their own culture. This can be used in a similar way or an altered way. If we think about religion as an example of transculturation, we can see it all around the world. For example, when the English colonizers came to the modern-day United States, they brought their Protestant religion with them. Traditional Protestant customs such as reading verses of the Bible got passed over to the Northern Americas. Then, when the Spanish conquistadors brought their Catholic-based religion practices to Central America and South America, many indigenous peoples adopted Catholicism. I recall seeing pictures from my parents' trip to Mexico City and seeing many murals of the Virgin Mary all around the city. Mexican people celebrate Día De Los Muertos, a Christian holid...

 After completing the first three chapters of Equiano's narrative, I have to say it was pretty difficult. I have always struggled with reading English from older time periods. I remember the first time I was asked to read Shakespeare I spent hours annotated and trying to make sense of everything. I eventually watched the movie, which felt like cutting corners but it helped me better understand what was going through the characters' heads. If I had to choose one word to describe the first three chapters of Equiano's narrative, I would choose bizarre. Nothing about Equiano's early adulthood is normal to me. He was kidnapped from his family at age 11 and was consistently kidnapped many times after that to be sold into slavery. Eventually, he was sold into slavery to Europeans who took him to the Americas. His consistent tone suggests as though everything he has gone through is normal. It's amazing to me how much travel around the world Equiano did in such a short perio...