#aplit20reading

(clock in 5:37pm EST)

Ever since Katara and Aang had been all fooly around each other I couldn't help but feel lonely. Mai and I were just too different, there wasn't much I could do about that. Now, I would just watch sunsets alone in the fire nation palace. The sun shined a deep and oddly familiar crimson red.

"Firelord Zuko. FIRELORD ZUKO!"

I snapped out of the hypnotic state I had been in,

"yes?" I gasped, "Aang!" I ran in to give my friend a hug. Katara was with him too, I gave her a wave. They immediately proceeded to make out. I said nothing.

"Get a room,"

I heard shackles and a voice say. Katara began to giggle as I began to loose my appetite.

"Oh, Zuko, this is a prisoner we took in for illegally selling tea," Aang blushed.

I couldn't help but laugh at the sound of that. My uncle would have loved the joke.

"Is...something funny?" Katara asked.

"Yeah, your mother's death," the prisoner joked. Again, I let out a laugh. Katara's face turned red with fury,

"ZUKO! ARE YOU SERIOUSLY LAUGHING RIGHT NOW!?"

"What does it look like?" The prisoner answered for me.

"dhshdbajjse," I bdkslasjsed.

Katara then began to water bend. She did her uglee little whip thingy and accidentally put out the lanterns and broke the prisoner's shackles. Then I heard foot steps around me. I felt gusts of wind, and with each gust a crimson flame shooting into a empty lantern. This fire was far more beautiful than the fire that lit the room before. My uncle told me about this! Only someone with a crimson heart, both warm and broken, could produce this colour.

"GRAB HER!!" Katra screeched.

She hid behind me and held on to my arm.

'Leave her alone, she's with me." I asserted.

"AGHH!!" Angry Katara stormed out with Aang follow her.

"what's your name," I asked her.

"Y/N," she replied.

(Clock out 6:02 EST)

Similar to the children’s experience with Madame, this is another “coming-of-age” moment for the children of Hailsham, as they start to realize what other people expect them to become. In this passage, Ishiguro reinforces the “in-group” and “out-group” distinction between the “students” of Hailsham and everyone else. Ishiguro uses specific diction to make this distinction, from the outsider’s/guardian’s point of view as well as the thoughts of the children themselves.

Miss Lucy, with much hesitancy, describes the students as “special,” and she implies that this is something that is often told to the students. The word “special"can have positive or negative connotations; most guardians present the word “special” as a compliment, though Miss Lucy’s hesitancy with this word makes it seem more like a euphemism.

According to Kathy, the students knew that they were “different from the guardians, and also from the normal people outside.” While reading this page, I almost missed Ishiguro’s almost casual use of the adjective “normal”. He intentionally crafts a story where the children recognize others as normal, which implies that the children labeled themselves as abnormal. The guardians do not directly label the children as such, but their euphemisms and attitudes toward the children influence the children’s self-image and identity. This reflects what often occurs in real life; others usually do not explicitly label us, but we learn about ourselves from their attitudes and actions toward us.

Finally, I thought it was interesting that Ishiguro repeats the children’s treatment of Marge in this passage. The children collectively believed that Marge had asked a “rude” question and punished Marge, independent of any instructions from the guardians. Kathy expresses how they “hated the way their guardians, usually so on top of everything, became so awkward whenever we came near this territory,” so that was why they “punished Marge K. so cruelly for bringing it all up.” In the interview that I watched, Ishiguro talked about our compliance to what we perceive as our fate. The children’s discomfort toward uncertainty in their authority figures may have been Ishiguro’s way of illustrating our want for the guidance of authority in determining our fate.

Status plays a big role in Hassan and Amir’s relationship. Amir clearly struggles to be friends with Hassan because of history, culture, and religious values that are keeping them apart. Despite being raised together, Amir cannot ignore the fact that he is Pashtun and Hassan is Hazara because in their society Hazaras are opressed.

Amir acts according to his high status and is always telling Hassan what to do. Notably, he describes Hassan as “a boy with a Chinese doll face.” The actions of a doll are always controlled by its owner.

I love studying, but we’re at the point where all the teachers are giving more work than they ever could’ve crammed into a 45-minute windowing and using COVID-19 as an excuse to do so. I understand they need to prove we’re working consistently but it’s getting out of hand at this point.

GENDER ROLES??/NAMEING:

There was an article that I read prior to reading the book (couldn’t find it) that explained how Walker examines how a person’s gender is distinct from their sexual identity and how the roles that are bestowed on men and women, and the expectations of behaviour that society expects from them, can often be destructive because they are too rigidly enforced.

In The Color Purple Walker includes some women characters who show masculine qualities and also men who enjoy activities that are more commonly associated with women:

Celie, for example, notices that Shug sometimes speaks and acts in a way that is more masculine than feminine. When Shug tells Sofia in Harpo’s juke joint that she looks like a person who enjoys a good time, it is the kind of remark that Celie would have expected a man to make. Then we have Sofia, an excellent wife and mother but also enjoys activities that could be considered to be ’manly’, like carpentry, while her husband Harpo enjoys looking after their children and cooking meals. His efforts at carpentry almost always end in disaster. Throughout the main part of the narrative, Albert is a stereotypical ‘manly’ man, but gradually he begins to change after Shug leaves him. He manages not only to make his home more comfortable, but also to learn the value of friendship which occurs as he learns to sew.

Another effective characterisation technique is Walker’s choice of names for some of the people in the novel. Shug Avery has two first names. Her birth name, given to her by her parents, is Lillie, but she is known throughout the novel by her nickname ‘Shug’ which is short for sugar:

‘Lillie’ could suggest Shug is a conventional female as it has connotations of the lily flower, traditionally associated with purity. The fact that she never uses this name could mean that she thinks it too lame for the lifestyle she has chosen.

‘Shug’ is a name which better fits her rebellious life as a sexy nightclub blues singer. Her behaviour is often less than sweet, especially towards people she does not respect. Harpo’s second wife Mary Agnes, also has two names which give an idea of what she is and what she would like to be:

She is nicknamed ‘Squeak‘ because of the sound of her singing voice, and the name suggests timidity and lack of importance. Later in the narrative, after she has been abused by her uncle when she tries to secure Sofia’s release from prison, she insists that she should now be called by her given name, Mary Agnes, as a mark of respect. She subsequently establishes herself as a successful singer under that name. Sofia’s name is symbolic. She is named after Sophia, the classical goddess of wisdom (also being associated with that quality in the Christian tradition). It is ironic that despite this, she is not wise enough to realise that defying a white official is extremely dangerous. Corinne’s husband Samuel (who marries Celie’s sister Nettie after Corinne’s death) is named after an Old Testament prophet. In Hebrew, Samuel means ‘name of God’. This is an appropriate name for a man who is a Christian minister and missionary. Samuel is one of the few male characters in the story who is consistently honest and trustworthy. Adam, Celie’s son, is also given a symbolic name, that of the first man created by God. Later in the narrative, after he marries Tashi, he also adopts the African name Omatangu which is a reference to the African belief that this was the name of the first created man. Like Samuel, Adam is a man who is honest and good.

To learn more about Michael Ondaatje, I decided to watch some of his interviews about his writing career and also the ones about promoting his books. I stumbled upon different segments of the interview that the Louisiana Channel had with Ondaatje. In those segments they discussed his writing style and how his early life influenced his writing.

In the “We Can’t Rely on One Voice” segment, I learned that Michael Ondaatje is an immigrant himself. He was born in Sri Lanka, moved to the United Kingdom at age 11, then moved to Canada when he was in college and still resides there today. His personal life reminds me a lot of the character of Almasy (English Patient) in the book. Their resemblance takes place in the many nations they lived in or belonged to. In the book, Almasy traveled around the world to learn more about the desert and the wind. Similarly, Ondaatje traveled to many nations to chase academic and career opportunities. 

I also learned that Ondaatje started out his career as a poet rather than a novelist. He apparently started out writing poems to people around him then published them without any personal gain since he considered poetry as a hobby. Eventually, he discovered he had a poetic gift and he decided to publish a book that was a poetry and prose mix. Ondaatje claimed that poetry is like sharing a small aspect of something to someone/yourself and that was what led him to start writing novels because he wanted to share a bigger thing with his readers. Personally, it doesn’t surprise me that he started out as a poet. The English Patient was a mixture of descriptive prose and almost lyrical poetry. Poems are very specific with language and that is an element apparent in Ondaatje’s writing. His paragraphs almost resemble music with its flow and rhythm. That writing style added some type of sophistication to the book and also to its characters. It made them seem more passionate with each other. Although the book was written in the 1990s the diction of the book was very similar to that of the 1930s since all the poetic elements added the old English vibe to the book. 

By watching those segments, I learned about the reason Ondaatje uses different voices in the novel. Apparently, by adding different voices to a novel it will make the reader feel more familiar to the storyline. Different voices in the novel is like having a real life conversation that involves different people from different backgrounds and that adds new opinions and stands on issues without making the book seem choppy (it will flow naturally like a real life conversation). Something that Ondaatje said during the interview was that “Pleasure of writing is the element of discovery”. That really stuck out to me because when you write you learn a lot about the world around you and sometimes you tend to discover different sides of yourself as well.

https://youtu.be/oLeD97p9gcQ

https://youtu.be/bF717oAYvWo