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This portfolio reflects my own work, except for collaborative assignments and recorded class discussions. Any assignments showcasing individual, non-collaborative are reflective of only my own independent work.

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Narrative Personal Reflection

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There were some difficulties with the short story project, particularly with choosing a global issue. It was hard to craft a statement that was not too much like a theme, but at the same time functioned similar to one. Additionally, the filming process was a little bit stressful, because my time was not as long as it had been during practice. The rest of the presentation went smoothly, though. Overall, I learned a lot more about how to craft a good global issue, but also how to dig deeper into the text to gain new meanings that weren't so glaringly obvious.

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Ibsen's "A Doll's House" was a unique work for me. I was nervous going into the unit that analyzing a play would be difficult considering the bulk of it is dialogue, but was pleasantly surprised at the hidden symbolism and stage directions. Ibsen often used light as a symbol, and would specifically contain it in stage directions to highlight its importance. The light was usually revealed once the truth was, connecting the two in such a way that the truth as seen as a positive thing. Focusing on implied stage directions was really interesting while diving deeper into the possible emotions of the characters, since there aren't any implicit clues. Through the use of simple punctuation, Ibsen was able to create distinct emotions and voices, which I personally found really cool.

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Kitchen helped me to appreciate simplicity in literature. Often the literature we read is complex in terms of plot and story, but Yoshimoto's story deviates from that norm without losing meaning and emotion. I enjoyed learning about "mono no aware" as a staple of Japanese art and literature, and its recurrence in Kitchen. Yoshimoto uses nature imagery and more simple descriptions to so genuinely name certain feelings and emotions. The simplicity in the way she portrays grief, love, and companionship through loss is incredibly refreshing, and I gained a real appreciation for it.

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Early Literary Analysis

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A Worn Path: Formalist Perspective

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The biggest takeaway I have from this unit has to do with the recognition and analysis of various perspectives. In The Things They Carried, we not only see O'Brien himself, but also the people he has fought alongside and representations of his past self and others. While his perspective as an American soldier in the Vietnam War is valuable in his own personal experiences, the more significant messages in my opinion had to do with the function and importance of story-telling, and how true or effective story-telling is achieved. Perspectives from authors who have far less freedom than O'Brien like Martin Luther King Jr. and Nguyen demonstrate other perspectives on war that focus less on specific story-telling and more on bluntness that reflects the widespread and often implicit aspects of war through a perspective that is arguably more valuable to a society that often fails to uplift the voices of true war victims.

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Reading this novel at the end of my journey in Literature was a unique experience. Throughout this course, we have analyzed stories from a variety of perspectives, and this novel encapsulates many perspectives in one story, as well. Over the course of this class, we have read novels while searching for specific literary devices and deeper meanings. While this book includes many devices and authorial choices that contribute to deeper understandings, it was refreshing to be able to read a book at the end of this course without being on a constant hunt. Instead, I was able to appreciate the text as a whole even more and found that even despite not actively searching for meanings or devices, I was seeing them on my own. At the beginning of this course, I never could have imagined being able to read more casually and still be able to pick out so many more minor details, so being able to do so while reading this book was a unique demonstration of how much I really have developed in this class. Overall, I appreciate the variety of perspectives that I was able to better understand in this novel.

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I had never analyzed a graphic novel before from a literary lens, so doing this in this unit was a new experience for me. I gained a large appreciation for graphic novels as forms of literature in their unique ways. How Satrapi uses images to express her feelings on discovering self-identity and questioning authority is incredibly powerful and adds so much to the language she uses. I also found the story itself to resonate with me. The struggle for self-identity is one that so many people can identify with, and Satrapi's description of her particular struggle for identity when she is receiving an influx of contradictory information is incredibly impressive.

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Reading Pedro Paramo challenged me, and I loved it. Rulfo's use of magical realism often stirred confusion in me over literal versus figurative elements in the story. However, the confusion also kept me wanting to continue reading and searching for answers. Similar to Hamlet, Pedro Paramo also included commentary about how religion is molded by society's most powerful members. I admire how Rulfo shows the effects of this kind of corruption, starting with Father Renteria, who was extorted by Pedro, and in turn affecting all citizens of Comala as they unknowingly support a corrupted faith.

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Who is the real victor in the end? Do Joe and Spunk both win? Do they both lose?

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Middle: Literary Analysis

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Throughout this unit, I learned a lot more about the realities of the Roaring Twenties and "American Dream". Prior to contextualizing the era and reading Gatsby, my mind had always jumped to images of extravagant and elite parties during the 1920's. The information that I learned through research and reading changed my perception of that era, as those images I had conjured were only realities for the upper class. It's also interesting how in the book, the American Dream is never fully discredited, as in it is never stated or assumed that it is impossible, but is potentially destructive. Fitzgerald's use of Nick as a peripheral narrator made the story seem like a brief moment in time, almost like it could be overlooked. Nick was never a central part of the conflict, and those who were, like Tom and Daisy, left the story relatively unscathed. Nick was the only one who really reflected over Gatsby's situation. This style of narration and timeline brought more attention to Gatsby's very short success and downfall, and the ability for victims of the American Dream to be overlooked or forgotten.

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Era of Production v. Reception Poem Annotations

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Era of Production v. Reception Poem Annotations

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Late Literary Analysis

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Creative Assignment

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Boland Pastiche

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Influence of Era of Production/Reception

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additional notes by hand in the red notebook

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I really liked Boland's works because she always tended to focus on reality. Whether it be the realities of life, love, or family, Boland highlighted everything. She often criticized the uniform perspective of history as she showed the true lives led by people that had ultimately been reduced. While she herself was in a successful marriage, she never shied away from discussing the hardships of working relationships. She also had a frequent focus on family and origins, in which she focused on the histories of her own family as something personal rather than just told. The realness was refreshing.

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Individual poems annotated by hand (reminder:
all stacked by records)

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There are so many characteristics of Gordimer's work that I appreciated over the course of this unit. A specific feature of hers was employing the use of a biased narrator. Oftentimes this made it difficult to understand Gordimer's true feelings when reading through the eyes of someone drastically different, but the effect usually created a complex situation and perspective where harmful biases could be seen in a more "common" person. I also really enjoyed the complexity of the issues Gordimer presented. There was never a distinct right or wrong, which was very thought provoking.

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"The Ultimate Safari" Group Discussion Chart

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"The Ultimate Safari" Group Discussion Chart

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"Some Are Born to Sweet Delight" Analysis Chart

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"Some Are Born to Sweet Delight" Analysis Chart

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located in Jump and Other Stories book except for "The Moment Before the Gun Went Off"- story printed out

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power dynamic btwn parents/child and how more powerful parents have affect on mindset of child

power dynamic between neighborhood residents/Black population- how walls/fences represent this dynamic (symbolism)

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HL Essay Outline Instructions and Template

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Stevenson uses such powerful descriptions in this novel to portray the duality of human nature. What engaged me most was his use of visual imagery to create such dark and realistic settings. Additionally, such imagery was used in describing Mr. Hyde. Rather than only focusing on his haunting physical attributes, Stevenson describes the way in which looking at him makes others feel. Thus, Stevenson highlights the duality of human nature in terms of all social standards, appearance-wise and behavioral.

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Reading Hamlet really furthered my appreciation for Shakespeare. It can be tempting to criticize Hamlet's actions, or rather lack of actions, throughout the play as he seeks revenge for his father's death, but Shakespeare shows many sides to Hamlet's character which aim to make him more relatable. I was most interested by Shakespeare's criticisms of hypocrisy within the church with how more powerful individuals allow themselves to deviate from rules without suffering any religious consequences.

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In year 2 red notebook

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-community values (individual vs. collective)
-history, traditions, ancestry
-language, feminine/masculine nouns
-geographical location, climate
-art, fashion, food, literature
-myth & legend
-education
-religion
Difference in cultures btwn author and reader could:
-reader draws from own cultural/personal experiences to take away distinct message
-reader could miss vital aspects of author's culture due to having differing values (misinterpretation)
-idiomatic expression: affects reader's understanding (nuances of language)

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- play; social commentary on power dynamics btwn men and women during time period
- tone/meaning through implicit/explicit stage directions
- motif of light = truth

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- memoir graphic novel
- use of full page spreads and light vs dark elements to create meaning
- many symbols that represent larger ideas (wearing long clothes, conformity, etc.)
- effect of larger systems on daily life; hypocrisy

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- more simplistic language/writing to draw attention to simplicity of life
- mono no aware- life being temporary; celebration of life in simplest forms

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- social commentary on morality of church/religious corruption
- interconnectedness btwn life and death; reality vs fantasy
- death is not great equalizer- bias even in death

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The Asian American Literary Review does great work. Now they have a new issue out on (Re)Collecting the Vietnam War, and it's really beautiful, featuring essays and visual art (in full color). I have a piece in this issue called "On True War Stories," and it, along with another essay by the anthropologist Louisa Schein and the actor Bee Vang-from Gran Torino-can be read online and commented on interactively. Try the comment function and start a conversation.
War is hell. Like many Americans and people the world over, I enjoy war stories that depend on what seems to be a disturbing idea.I have a personal stake in such stories, having been born in Vietnam but raised, or made, as it were, in America. A war brought me from over there to over here, an experience I share with millions of my fellow Americans.Sometimes I wonder whether my circumstances, or what my parents endured, can be called a war story, and how that story can be told. In "How to Tell a True War Story," from The Things They Carried, Tim O'Brien says,

War is hell, but that's not the half of it, because war is mystery and terror and adventure and courage and discovery and holiness and pity and despair and longing and love. War is nasty; war is fun. War is thrilling; war is drudgery.War makes you a man; war makes you dead.The truths are contradictory.

I have only experienced the half of war that is not any fun. Perhaps that is why thrilling war stories captivate me, the ones with "gore galore," in the words of art critic Lucy Lippard. But as good as those war stories are, perhaps they are not actually true.

One of my early encounters with a true war story was reading Larry Heinemann's Close Quarters, which shocked me when I was perhaps eleven or twelve. Near the end of this Vietnam War novel, the young all-American soldier who is the narrator puts a gun to the head of a Vietnamese prostitute named Claymore Face. He gives her a choice: blow him and his friends or get blown away. The novel renders no judgment on this rape, leaving me alone with my feelings, without the comfort provided by the author telling me that this was wrong. I could not forgive Heinemann for scarring me with such an ugly scene until I wrote a novel myself decades later. This is when I realized that some things are so nasty the writer should simply show them as they are. The ugliness is, and must be, unforgettable.

Still. It did not matter if Heinemann's sympathies might lie with Claymore Face, because the story belonged to the American soldier. I dimly realized a few things that would take me years to articulate. First: better to be victimizer than victim. That's why America's Vietnam War stories, which often dwell on the bad things that Americans have done, depend on turning the Vietnamese into bit actors. As any movie star will attest, it is preferable to take center stage as antihero than take to the wings as virtuous extra. This is why bleak Vietnam War stories still do well in an America that sometimes does its hardest to deny its sometimes nasty behavior. Americans applaud these stories and successors like Zero Dark Thirty, for even if they depict Americans torturing others, their audiences know it is far more interesting to torture than be tortured. Or, as Milton's Satan observed, better to rule in Hell than serve in Heaven.

The second thing I learned from Heinemann: rape was hard to account for in a certain kind of war story, the one that audiences call "good." If, in a good war story, war makes you a man, does rape make you a woman? If women are unmade by rape (as are the male victims of rape), Close Quarters shows that the kind of man made by rape was not the kind anybody wants around. That's why Americans welcome home their soldiers without wanting to think too much about what they might have done over there. Killing is not the problem. No one is concerned that Clint Eastwood can celebrate, in his latest film, an American sniper who killed one hundred and sixty people in a rather intimate way, seeing their faces through his scope. But rape? Look away. The other side does it, not us.

The last thing I learned from Claymore Face was that she did and did not have my face. She was Vietnamese and a gook. So was I in the eyes of some Americans, like John McCain and a host of Hollywood screenwriters and directors who had killed nearly as many Vietnamese on screen as had died in the war. And yet I was also an American. People like me, the Vietnamese who fled to the United States after the war's end, were living proof of the success of one of America's greatest desires, to win the hearts and minds of others.America's ability to do so was the central message of John Wayne's propaganda movie set in Vietnam, The Green Berets. The wrongheadedness of this desire is inadvertently shown in the infamous final shot. Wayne, the American soldier, walks into the sunset with a young Vietnamese orphan in need of his paternal benevolence. The sun is setting in the South China Sea, but that sea lies east of Vietnam. Americans cannot see straight sometimes, which is why many thought that Iraqis would treat their invaders as liberators, even though Americans themselves would never do any such thing.

I heard a different kind of war story as I grew up among Vietnamese refugees. There was the one about a man who held up a mom-and-pop shop in a small Vietnamese town with a hand grenade.Or the one about a mother who fled that small town when the communists arrived, taking her sons but leaving behind her adopted teenage daughter to take care of the shop, believing she would soon return. Mother and daughter would not see each other again for twenty years. Or what about the time that mother and her husband opened another shop in San Jose, California, and were shot on Christmas Eve in an armed robbery? Or how they cried when they received letters announcing the deaths of their parents in their now lost homeland? Or how they worked twelve-hour days every day of the year except for Christmas, Easter, and Tet?

Those were my parents. Their stories are typical of refugees, although when I mention them to other Americans, an uncomfortable silence usually ensues, since these things did not happen to most Americans. But are not these stories also war stories?For many people, and according to O'Brien's definition, no. There is nothing fun about losing home, business, family, health, sanity, or country, some or all of which happened to so many of the Vietnamese people I know. You don't get a medal for these kinds of things, much less a belated parade or memorial, and hardly ever a movie. What you get are war stories told about the soldiers who came to your country to save you from communism, just as we are now getting war stories about the soldiers who went to Iraq and Afghanistan. Heinemann's novel was part of a whole wave of stories that refought the Vietnam War on page and screen. These stories are how most global audiences know this war, the first war in history where the loser gets to write the history for the world. While the Vietnamese have written history, too, their stories stand little chance against the shock and awe of the American military-cinema-industrial complex. But as novelist Gina Apostol says of this complex: "Does it not suggest not only an economic order but also a psychiatric disorder?"

This disorder thrives on the excitement of good war stories, which, like O'Brien, overlook at least two things that war happens to be. First: war is profitable. Few storytellers want to discuss this because the fact that war makes an enormous amount of money is either disturbing to most Americans or not disturbing at all, due to the aforementioned disorder. Second: war is a bore. Photographer Tod Papageorge's book, American Sports, 1970: Or How We Spent the War in Vietnam, shows how trivial the war was for many Americans. The photographs simply capture Americans playing in sporting events or watching them. Only the last photograph of the War Memorial in Indianapolis acknowledges the war, with these words on the facing page: "In 1970, 4,221 American troops were killed in Vietnam." Even as American soldiers died abroad, life went on at home. So it is with America's wars in the Middle East, akin to a sporting event for those Americans not directly involved, which is to say the overwhelming majority. Papageorge's photos are true war stories of life inside the war machine for civilians, most of whom are not paying much attention, if at all, to the wars fought in their name. What is most disturbing about his photos is the implication that if war is hell, then this is what hell looks like, Americans enjoying seemingly innocent pastimes.

Being acclimated to hell is part of our disorder.But listen carefully. Can't you hear the dull hum of the war machine we live in, the white noise of a massive mechanism oiled by banalities, bolted together by triviality, and enabled by passive consent? In "The Brother Who Went to Vietnam," from her book China Men, Maxine Hong Kingston writes that

Whenever we ate a candy bar, when we drank grape juice, bought bread (ITT makes Wonder bread), wrapped food in plastic, made a phone call, put money in the bank, cleaned the oven, washed with soap, turned on the electricity, refrigerated food, cooked it, ran a computer, drove a car, rode an airplane, sprayed with insecticide, we were supporting the corporations that made tanks and bombers, napalm, defoliants, and bombs.For the carpet bombing.

From carpets to carpet bombing, war is so woven into society's fabric that it is almost impossible for a citizen not to find war underfoot even at home.

For many, this is not a good war story, but a bad one they would rather avoid.This story says that all war is, in a sense, total war. Opening a refrigerator is a true war story. So is paying one's taxes. Complicity is the truest war story of all, which is why a blood-drenched movie like Apocalypse Now tells only half the true war story. It is about the heart of darkness over there, in the jungle where the white man discovers that he, too, is a savage, the heart of darkness beating within him. But the other half of the true war story would show that the heart of darkness is also where we reside, over here, all around us. Americans do not wish to confront this domestic horror directly, which is why they substitute for it stories of zombies and serial killers and the like. Fictional violence and monstrous horror are easier to stomach than understanding how opening our refrigerator or watching a football game connects us to war, which is not thrilling at all. The true war story is not only that war is hell, a statement that never prevented us from going to war but has always gotten us to run to the movie theater or pick up a book. The true war story is also that war is normal, which is why we are always going to war.War is boring, a bad story most people do want to hear. War involves all of us, and that is more discomfiting than any horror story over here or blood-and-guts story over there.

The fact that my family of refugees has become living proof of the American Dream is also a true war story, my parents wealthy, my brother a doctor on a White House committee, and myself a professor and novelist. To many Americans, we are evidence that the war was worth it, since it gave us the chance to be better Americans than many Americans. But if we are a testament to the immigrant story, we are only here because the United States fought a war that killed three million Vietnamese (not counting the three million others that died in neighboring Laos and Cambodia during the war and immediately after). Filipinos are here because of the U.S. war that killed a million people in the Philippines in 1898. Koreans are here because of the Korean War that killed three million. We can argue about the blame, but the list goes on, as Junot Díaz also understands.In The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, he tells us how

just as the U.S. was ramping up its involvement in Vietnam, LBJ launched an illegal invasion of the Dominican Republic (April 28, 1965).(Santo Domingo was Iraq before Iraq was Iraq).A smashing military success for the U.S., and many of the same units and intelligence teams that took part in the 'democratization' of Santo Domingo were immediately shipped off to Saigon.

Many Americans forgot or never knew this true war story. If Americans think of the arrival of Dominicans to America at all, they most likely think of it as an immigrant story.

But what if we understood immigrant stories to be war stories?And what if we understood that war stories disturb even more when they are not about soldiers, when they show us how normal war is, how war touches and transforms everything and everybody, including, most of all, civilians?War stories that thrill may be true, but they only make war more alluring, something that happens somewhere else, over there.Another kind of true war story reminds us of something much more uncomfortable, that war begins, and ends, over here, with the support of citizens for the war machine, with the arrival of frightened refugees fleeing wars that we have instigated.Telling these kinds of stories, or learning to read, see, and hear boring stories as war stories, is an important way to treat the disorder of our military-industrial complex.Rather than being disturbed by the idea that war is hell, this complex thrives on it.

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The Asian American Literary Review does great work. Now they have a new issue out on (Re)Collecting the Vietnam War, and it's really beautiful, featuring essays and visual art (in full color).

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Drawn in notebook

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Notes on Japanese Aesthetics & Authorial Choices

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Notes on Japanese Aesthetics & Authorial Choices

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Reading this novel taught me so much about injustices against certain cultures and populations that still exist in our current society, specifically toward Black Americans. Hearing the detail with which the author describes the struggles of her brother and herself as she grapples with family members being excessively imprisoned. She tends to maintain a somewhat matter-of-fact tone to convey what she observes, leaving the reader to just sit and also observe the injustice that seems so clear to see. There were moments of this book that were difficult to get through, but the inclusion of these moments keeps the memoir grounded around reality and reminds the reader constantly that the described situations continue to occur. My favorite takeaway from this memoir was the large presence of hope. So many horrible events surround the author and other Black people who she knows or witnesses, and yet the end of the novel is somewhat uplifting and maintains ideas that change can happen, and that circumstances can be improved.