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"the Chinese, like the Mexicans, don't like their women strong" (10)

historical  --.> more well known, books offer a picture of a kind of discrimination within culture that makes these woman's lives more difficult

discrimination and outsiders view of her neighborhood
- shame knowing where she comes from
- "Those who don't any better come into our neighborhood scared. They think we're dangerous." (28)
- contrasted by "We aren't afraid." and "we are safe"
- racism from the outside world
- how people see her home, don't acknowledge their humanity
- people like Esperanza want out, it's hard though

Chicano culture doesn't value women/ trapped in the sexist female role for Chicano woman and the cycle of poverty Chicanos experience in general
- other women find a way out through men
- she decides to reject that
- "I have begun my own quiet war" (89)
- starts acting like a boy because she doesn't want to
negative results of what being a girl in her culture means
- she isn't going to sit by the window like the others
- she knows all her life that she "doesn't belong"

writing is her form of freedom and escape from Mango St
- the new house is her writing because it represents the independence and freedom she desired
- story telling is powerful
- economically provides for her
- can write herself out of poverty

Mango St will still always be apart of her identity
- returns "For the ones [she] left behind". For the ones who cannot out." (110)
- the women who can't escape
- even if it's invisible to outsiders, it's a place of comfort for her
- "You can't erase what you know. You can't forget who you are." (105)

tells the truth through her writing
- falsifies the idea that girls like Sally are happy being subjected by the men in their lives
- calls out men for using sex and violence as a way of controlling women
- breaks the silence
- her way of helping others escape

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discrimination and racial slurs, "chink" and "gook" (53)
- marginalized in America because of her Chinese identity
- "It's not just the stupid racists that I have to do something about, but the tyrants who for whatever reason can deny my family food and work." (49)
- deals with systematic racism
- treated as less

rigid ideas of Chinese feminine and what the role of a woman is
- "China wraps double binds around my feet" (48)
- in direct contrast to ideas of American success
- feels called to something different than what her Chinese community tells her
- "I was getting straight A's for the good of my future husband's family, not my own" (47)
- her success isn't valued because she is a girl
- resents this treatment grounded in Chinese customs

escapes her home because it was limiting her
- "I had to leave home in order to see the world logically, logic the new way of seeing."
- makes the choice to become American

writing is her way of acknowledging her Chinese identity
- just like her mother
- continues to share Chinese traditions and stories like Fa Mu Lan
- good relationship w mother = good relationship with China

uses writing to tell the truth
- calls out Chinese culture for silencing women
- "I hated the secrecy of China" (183)
- secret of discrimination within culture
- deeply personal accounts of gender discrimination they experienced and witnessed
- how we can read
- write characters we can connect to
- we understand their story
- choose to write to create more empathy

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Thesis: Murphy Paul tells us in his article, "Reading Literature Makes Us Smarter and Nicer," that by reading books we are "better able to understand other people, empathize with them and view the world from their perspective." While his claim extends to all kinds of novels, I believe multicultural literature shows us a complicated reality many would otherwise not understand. Both The Woman Warrior by Maxine Hong Kingston and The House on Mango St. by Sandra Cisneros tell the story of a young girl's internal conflict to discover her identity. Kingston and Esperanza, Cisneros' main character, struggle to accept their Chinese and Chicano cultures because of the limitations each places on women. These stories offer insight into the complexities minorities face in balancing a community that is innately a part of their identity and sexism within it they wish to escape.

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In "Should Literature Be Useful?" Lee Siegel highlights the results of two similar experiments where subjects where gives samples of literary fiction. Specifically, "the subjects who had read literary fiction reported heightened emotional intelligence or demonstrated, int he various tasks administered to them, that their empathy level had soared beyond their popular- and non-fiction-reading counterparts." In other words, reading made the subjects more empathic. This insight allowed them to prove that fictional reading can serve just as much of a purpose (if not more) than nonfiction reading. Siegel also emphasizes how the experiment proves that reading can be useful through concrete results. Additionally, Siegal also provides a summary of his definition of empathy and acknowledges its complexity. He mentions a shortcoming in the experiments in their lack of ability to measure sympathy. To conclude, Siegal highlights literature's ability to get us to use our imaginations. Through books we are able to feel and experience.

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Reading Literature Makes Us Smarter and Nicer

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Reading Literature Makes Us Smarter and Nicer

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In "Reading Literature Makes Us Smarter and Nicer," Murphy Paul argues that there is evidence suggesting reading literature makes us better. Studies show "that individuals who often read diction appear to be better able to understand other people, empathize with them and view the world from their perspective." This example is demonstrated in children at a young age as well as adults who gravitate towards novels later in life. Reading books enables development beyond the "superficial reading" of material on the internet. Paul explains that the kind of reading done through novel, poems, and other pieces of literature are a unique experience. This requires a kind of "immersion" unparalleled by online reading. According to Paul, we may attribute the same name to deep reading of book and scrolling though TMZ, but they are in fact very different. Finally, Paul address a concern that the youth of today is neglecting a crucial part of development by not reading written materials daily. He argues that young people are not enjoying reading or slowing allowing themselves to take in an author's words. They have no time to absorb or reflect on what is being said. Now, Paul describes what Frank Kermode calls "carnal reading" in which readers cheat themselves of the enjoyable benefits of literature.

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"I hated Shirley" -Claudia on pg 19
- Claudia hates Shirley because Shirley is the representation of the beauty standards she cannot meet.
"How do you get somebody to love you?" -Pecola on pg 32
- Pecola has never experienced love from anyone. While Claudia and Frieda may nto experience "love" from society, they still have a mother who will show them affection in her own way.
"They believed they were ugly" -pg 38
- The Breedloves are all victims of a society that tells them they are worthless because they are "ugly," meaning they do fit into white beauty standards. They suffer greatly because they are constantly being told they are worthless. Because they are constantly being reminded of their own "ugliness," they believe it.

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"Those who don't know any better come into our neighborhood scared. They think we're dangerous. They think we will attack them with shiny knives. They are stupid people who are lost and got here by mistake."
-Esperanza notices how people from outside the neighborhood react to it. For her it means home, even if she realizes she wants better. It still provides a safe place a comfort for her. Yet to outsiders, they assume it is just a dangerous place. They fail to recognize the real people who live real lives within the neighborhood.
"He said it was his birthday and would I please give him a birthday kiss. I thought I would because he was so old and just as I was about to put my lips on his cheek, he grabs my face with both hands and kisses me hard on the mouth and doesn't let go."
-This encounter shows Esperanza what men expect from her. She has seen how girls use their sexuality to achieve some degree of power over men but in this case, she is still subjected and abused by a man.
"I have begun my own quiet war. Simple. Sure. I am the one who leaves the table like a man, without putting back the chair or picking up the plate."
-Esperanza is fighting a war against the culture that dramatically limits her role as a woman. She is not satisfied with the small amount of power she can achieve as she has watched other girls. Instead, she decides to subtly go against the gender roles set in place for her. She is going to escape Mango St by her own will and isn't going to wait around for a man to do so.

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"She said I would grow up to be a wife and a slave, but she taught me the song of the warrior woman, Fa Mu Lan." - pg 20
-Brave Orchid may preach the traditional Chinese customs, but she contracts those ideal with stories of powerful women like Fa Mu Lan and even in her own actions as a woman.
"We made a sling for the baby inside my big armor, and rode back into the thickest part of the fighting. The umbilical cord flew with the red flag and made us laugh." - pg 40
-Fa Mu Lan is proof that a woman can be both ambitious/successful and still be a good mother too. She combines the traditional role of a woman in China with a completely untraditional role as a general.

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"In my opinion the speech was wild, hysterical, politically irresponsible and dangerous" -pg 349
-Brother Jack scolds the Invisible Man for his impromptu speech. He does not approve of the Invisible Man taking his own path. He represents how although the Brotherhood may claim to be advocates for civil rights, they are actually apart of the system that continues to subordinate blacks.
"the cast-iron figure of a very black, red-lipped and wide-mouthed Negro" -pg 319
-When the Invisible Man smashes the bank, this demonstrates his refusal to adhere to racial stereotypes.
"with his arms upheld, his posture clumsy like that of an intoxicated panda" -pg 20
-The black men are not the animals during the battle royal even though they are treated as so. It is actually the white men are a inhuman and disgusting through their actions.

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Chinese
female
immigrant
family dynamic
parents

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Hispanic
female
child
friendship
family dynamics
neighborhood
Catholic school

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African American
female
child
poor
appearance
parents
family dynamic
friendship
media

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African America
male
Southerner
young
college student
activist

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While vignettes like "Marin," demonstrate the kind of girls who do rely on the men to change their economic situation and free them from the financial stresses of living in poverty, Cisneros herself is an example of female success without the help of a man. She, unlike many of the female characters in her book, does not need to be rescued by a male. The book demonstrates how those who wait for men to solve their problems often times do not ever gain the freedom they desire.

People who live in impoverish neighborhoods are still people. While it may be true that there are "bad" people in these kinds of neighborhoods, there are "bad" people in every neighborhood. Cisneros shows how places like Mango St that we (white people) are so afraid of are serve as these people's home. There are a place of comfort and love for many. Conversely, the white, "safe" neighborhoods we view as superior are terrifying to others.

While the vignette "______," exemplifies the stereotype of troubled children. It demonstrates the reasoning behind there bad behavior. The act the way they do with such little respect for anything because they have no respect for themselves. They have such little respect for themselves because they live in a society that constantly reminds them that they are innately less than their white counterparts. They are a result of an culture that does not value them. The kids become the stereotype not because it is true, but because their situation does not permit them to become anything else.

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Very overtly, Fa Mu Lan demonstrates the exact antithesis of this stereotype. She is quiet literally a "warrior" and a perfect example of strength and bravery. While she seems to go against the ideals of a perfect Chinese women, Chinese mothers continue to tell the legend of Fa Mu Lan. In telling her daughter the story of Fa Mu Lan, Brave Orchid also serves as another strong female Chinese character. Thus, dissolving this stereotype of what Chinese women are expected to be.

I think there is a stereotype regarding Asian parents that makes them out to be very worried about their children's academic success. Yet, we see in The Woman Warrior how the opposite is true. Because Kingston is female, her academic success actually means nothing to her parents. In their eyes, that success does nothing to serve them. Instead, it will only benefit her husband's family. Therefore, they place little value on it. While this many not be true for many Asian families today, it adds complexity to a common stereotype in today's culture.

The story of Fa Mu Lan directly discounts this idea. Fa Mu Lan demonstrates how one can be a successful general and the mother of a child. While in the end she leaves her army to be with her child, this is only after she has spent years fearlessly leading her troops. She ends this portion of her life to serve as a successful mother but this demonstrates how she can achieve glory in one role and fulfill the traditional roles of a woman as well.

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Claudia's mother does come across as strict and does not show her affection is "lovey-dovey" ways. However, in her own way, she does show she loves her children and cares for them. Because of their lifestyle she cannot afford to grant her children's every wish or have the time to entertain them constantly. Yet, we still see her rubbing the salve on her when she's sick proving that she does truly love and care about her children in a genuine way. Their family is also contrasted with the Breedlove's where there is no love expressed within their family. The two diverging family structures demonstrate how the black family dynamic can be different and that there is not one specific mold that each family fits into. Futhermore, Gauraldine's home is an example of the pursuit of "cleanliness" (whiteness) does not mean the inclusion of love. In her despite efforts to be included in white society, she in turn abandons the black community and fails to show meaningful love to her son as seen in the MacTeer household. So, while there can be neglectful, cruel mothers within the black family dynamic, there are also loving, generous mothers as well.

This stereotype is clearly not true. Specifically through the children, we see how even within a particular demographic there is variety. While children like Claudia, Pecola, Maureen, and others may experience may of the same stereotypes, they all have different upbringings. Even though Claudia's family is very poor, she receives love growing up that Pecola is deprived of. Maureen feels a sense of superiority within the black community because her skin is lighter and is given a certain degree of power over other children.

The comfort Pecola finds spending time with the prostitutes demonstrates her and their humanity. While the prostitutes may have chosen a questionable profession, they too can still be "useful" in the way that they open up to Pecola. As both Pecola and the prostitutes are marginalized by society, they find refuge with each other. It is almost ironic that prostitutes are so looked down upon in society but are some of the only people that show kindness to Pecola. They serve an important purpose in her life that no one else has done.

The media, popular culture, and even history tell us that the only way to be beautiful to to fit into the very specific Shirley Temple kind of beauty. Morrison demonstrates how destructive these ideas are to young girls and how vulnerable we are to these kinda of messages. For many girls, their self-worth is defined by their appearance.  I think Morrison is almost adding to a single story that beauty standards can have negative effects. She is not discounting that blonde hair, blued eye image of beauty but rather further demonstrating how dangerous it is for black girl specifically. Beauty standards effect all girls regardless of race, yet when they effect young African American girls, the results are almost more horrific because they the most prominent aspect of their appearance: skin color. Thus, the negative affects of beauty standards are amplified with racism.

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Women must rely on men to free them from difficult situations or help the escape "bad" neighborhoods by providing for their wives/girlfriends.

People who live in impoverish neighborhoods are "dangerous" and bad.

Hispanic children have less potential than white children.

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Chinese women are submissive and subject to the men in their lives.

Chinese parents are extremely strict when it comes to academics.

A woman must choose between glory/ personal achievement and a family.

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Black mothers are harsh and neglectful of their children.

All poor African Americans' experience is the same.

Prostitutes are horrible and useless to society.

There is one definition of beauty (blond hair and blue eyes) and one can only be happy when he or she fits into that category.

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No matter the color of someone's skin, they are still human. We see how the Invisible Man responds to the fighting and understand how unethical and cruel the battle royal is. Such an experience would be traumatic for anyone. They feel pain and anger just like any white man would. Their suffering should not be used as entertainment. Through the white spectator's actions, they conversely become the inhuman, animal-like creatures.

The Invisible Man have proven himself to be a successful student. He is extremely articulate and a successful speaker. His ability is not hindered by his race. Although he may have lacked the same opportunities other white men get, he still has great potential to share wise and inspiration words with his audience. We see his public speaking skills demonstrated later on in the novel. Also, the novel itself is a testament to his literary skills. He is no doubt, a very skilled write and communicator with incredibly important things to share.

The Invisible Man is an independent person with his own ideas and opinions. Just because a group of white men seem to be on his side does not mean he should buy into their promises or even agree with their statements or actions. He is the one experiencing the discrimination and injustices that Brotherhood claims to be fighting. Therefore, he should have a better idea of how to fight he. He can sympathize with the audience in ways white members of the Brotherhood could never do. He is entitled to make decisions for himself and should not be required to blindly follow the Brotherhood's lead.

Geographic location is not the only thing that defines a person. It also does not mean all people from one area are the same. While it is true that the Invisible Man will always have certain characteristics of a Southern, he is not exclusively that. The fact that he likes yams or says y'all does not make him lesser than black men of the north.

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As a black man, the Invisible Man is innately less human than whites and thus, can be treated like an animal as seen in the battle royal.

Black men are stupid and have nothing important to say. They should not be listened to or given respect when speaking.

As an activist with the Brotherhood, the Invisible Man should regularly agree with all of their points and comply with their demands because they're "on his side."

All southern black men are essentially the same. They all speak in the same accent, want certain foods, and have the same beliefs.