Symbols: Magda & The Shawl

In the book “The Shawl” by Cynthia Ozick there seem to be certain people and objects that are major symbols that are mentioned throughout the novel.  In this book it seems as if there are two significant symbols which are Magda and the shawl. The book is titled The Shawl because one unique shawl seems to play an important role from the beginning to the end. Magda, who is Rosa’s baby girl who had died while residing in the camps, seem to be an important and big symbol in the book as well.

                Even though Magda dies in the first story of the book, Rosa still seems to write to her and make believe things about her. Rosa makes Magda out to be all these things that in reality Magda can never be because she is no longer living. For example, “To her daughter Magda she wrote in the most excellent literary polish.” Rosa was writing to Magda long after she was dead trying to keep Magda alive in her mind but in reality she is gone forever. When reading the paragraph where Rosa mentioned Magda I felt that Rosa uses Magda as a memory that symbolizes the past and what she had been through. Magda is the sad past that Rosa just can’t seem to let go of. Magda is used in the book as a false sense of hope and comfort. Even though it is putting Rosa in a comfort zone pretending Magda is alive, it is becoming an unhealthy way to cope with events that happened in her life. Another major symbol is the shawl itself.  Throughout the book Rosa holds on to the shawl because it also symbolizes the past. Rosa holds on to it when Magda was a live she holds on to it when she dies and she continues to keep it.

                There are so many symbols in the novel “The Shawl” that represents more than what they seem. Magda and the Shawl are two prime examples of symbols with a deeper meaning.

The Significants of the Shawl

In the book “The Shawl” by Cynthia Ozick, is a book that are based on fictional characters that experience true events. This book takes place during the holocaust and goes into great detail about what had went on during this tragic period. The book is broken up into to two parts; the beginning chapter which I have read is called The Shawl same as the title of the book. This title is significant because the author wraps the story around a baby and an important shawl.

The Shawl is important because Rosa uses it to cover the baby Magda. Rosa knows that if Magda is found she will be killed. Rosa and Magda became completely dependent on this shawl. For example, as stated in the book, “the shawl was Magda’s own baby, her pet, her little sister. She tangled herself up in it and sucked on one of the corners when she wanted to be very still. Then Stella took the shawl away and made Magda die. Not only did the baby Magda depend on the shawl for something to give her love to but she depended on it to keep her secure. Rosa depended on the shawl as well; she expected the shawl to keep Magda secure and fed. For instance, “Magda relinquished Rosa’s teats first the left, then the right; both were cracked, not a sniff of milk. The duct-crevice extinct, a dead volcano, blind eye, chill hole, so Magda took the corner of the shawl and milked it instead. She sucked and sucked, flooding the threads with wetness. The shawl’s good flavor, milk of linen.” When Rosa was not able to feed Magda she looked to the shawl for nourishment. Rosa also depended on the shawl to hold her sorrow. For instance, at the end of the first part of the book, Rosa looks to the shawl to hold in her pain when Magda died. “So she took Magda’s shawl and filled her own mouth with it, stuffed it in and stuffed it in, until she was swallowing up the wolf’s screech and tasting the cinnamon and almond depth of Magda’s saliva; and Rosa drank Magda’s shawl until it dried.

The shawl was an object that played a big part in the first part of the book. It became a necessity to Rosa and Magda and for that one moment when Stella stole the shawl everything seemed too changed.

Otsuka's Purpose

In the book “When the Emperor was Divine” there are many true events that occurred during the 1940’s. Many Japanese families had to live in Internment camps; in the novel, there was one family that the author told the story around. While this family was in these internment camps, they had to face many changes and overcome many hardships. It seems to be a tough time for the family living in those conditions left a permanent and damaging image in their minds. While this family spent three years of their lives in this environment, it seems to have taken a emotional and physical toll on them. It’s stories like “When the Emperor was divine” that America tries to hide and avoid but Julie Otsuka made sure that the reader got to get a feel of what it was really like for the Japanese living during these times.

After reading the book “When the Emperor was divine” it was obvious that Julie Otsuka had a clear purpose for writing this book. She wanted to show people the affect that the internment camps really had on the Japanese. She goes into detail about the physical and emotional changes that the characters experience. For instance, while the woman was in the internment camps she experienced a lot of physical and emotional changes.  The woman becomes depressed and her physical appearance starts to change. Her and her soon notices that changes that are going on in her face.

She stood in front of the mirror tracing the lines along her forehead and neck with her finger. “Is it the light.” She asked, “or are there bags under my eyes? “There’s bags.” She pointed to a wrinkle by her mouth. “See This?” He nodded.

I thought this quote was important because it really showed how much of a physical change that the internment camps caused for the woman. Throughout the book, Julie Otsuka uses much detail to describe many of the families hardships during their time spent in these camps. With Otsuka’s descriptive detail, the reader can almost picture their selves in the families’ shoes but can never relate. It would be hard to even imagine what many Japanese families went through but Otsuka gives readers an idea of what society was trying to hide.

Julie Outsuka's Imagery and Descriptive Detail

The book “When the Emperor Was Divine” is about a Japanese family, who had to evacuate California and leave their Americanized life behind to live in Internment camps in the Utah deserts.  When first reading this book, I noticed that the author presented a lot of imagery. The author goes into so much detail with the characters surroundings I can almost picture myself in the narrator’s shoes.  It was interesting how perfectly detailed the author narrated this book.

In the first chapter of the book “When the Emperor Was Divine” the author go into much detail about the dress the woman was wearing, her house, and her surroundings.  For example, “Outside the sun was warm and the palm fronds were clacking idly against the side of the house. She pulled on her white silk gloves and began to walk east on Ashby.” The author Julie Otsuka expressed so much detail from the warm sun to her silk gloves. Throughout the book there was much disruptive imagery. These descriptive details made me feel like I was in place of the character experiencing all these senses. I actually enjoyed the fact that the book was very detailed with the setting because it made me as the reader have a better understanding of where and when this book was taking place.

I believe that Outsuka’s purpose for making this novel so descriptive is because she wants the reader to feel like they are experiencing what the characters are experiencing. Even though nothing can compare to what these characters are and about to face, the reader can kind of get a sense of what the characters are seeing and having to go through. For example, when the 11 year old girl was on the train she was getting nausea on the train the woman was describing the smell that was making the girl sick. “Some of the passengers were sick from the uneven rocking of the cars and the crowded compartments smelled of vomit and sweat and faintly oranges.” This quote made me feel a little nausea reading it. Outsuka uses much imagery and descriptive detail to try to put the reader in the novel.

Questions I Have On The Novel "PUSH"

In the book “Push” there were a lot of situations and experiences that the main character Claireece Precious Jones goes through in her life. Precious’s life was not an easy one; she was basically born into a bad situation. Both Precious’s parents abused her in any way possible. Precious’s Father Carl Kenwood Jones repeatedly raped Precious, while her mother physically and emotionally battered her. After a while of dealing with this type of abuse, Precious’s self esteem was basically ruined.

After reading this book and seeing the experiences that Precious go through, it made me think of questions that I couldn’t seem to really find the answers to. For example, why did Precious’s Father hurt her by raping her? How can a man do that to his daughter? From what I have read, it seems as if Precious’s Father rapes her because it gives him a sense of power and control. But why did he take it as far as he did? He gave Precious not only one but two kids and basically ruined her childhood. To what extend can a father go to hurt his daughter? Even though this book is not based on a true story, this book shows real life events that do happen, especially to women. Other questions that I thought of are why was the mother so cruel to her own daughter? Why did she allow Precious Father to continuously rape her? It also shocked me that a mother can be so terrible to her own daughter; but with the pain Precious’s Mother caused, it seems as if there had to be a reason behind it. It seemed as if Precious’s Mother was jealous of the fact that Carl (Precious’s Father) wanted to sleep with Precious instead of her. Precious’s abuse from her mother was cruel; but it was the Mother‘s way of dealing with the situation.

As one can see, Precious had a very rough life which one would question, why was the parents making life so terrible for Precious?  It is a question that stayed on my mind throughout the whole book. I felt as if Precious was born into a bad situation with parents that just did not care about her, but how can two parents not care about their own child?

My First Reaction to "PUSH"

In the book “Push” the author Sapphire expresses some pretty graphic details of a young girl’s horrible experiences growing up. Claireece Precious Jones is the young girl presented in the novel “Push” that seemed to be failed by a lot of people in her life. When I use the word failed I am referring to all the people who let Precious down in her lifetime.  When I first started reading this book I was just shocked on how one person can be deceived by so many people.

As I was reading the novel “Push” I felt not only mad but surprised at the fact that the two people who caused the most problems in Precious’s life was her mother and father. Your parents are supposed to be the people who give you guidance love and affection, but in the book “Push” it was the total opposite. As in the book “Fun Home” Bechdel lacked love and affection from her parents but I felt they never failed her to the extent that Precious’s parents did. With having a mom who is jealous of you and a dad who is constantly forcing you into sex and creating babies with you, Precious had a life that one can only imagine.

I feel that everybody has a moment in their life that they feel as if their parents have failed them, but with Precious this feeling lasted a lifetime. Precious had to grow up real fast because of the situation she was born into and I found that fact to be real heart breaking. This book is not only an explicit book to read but it is a book that has many tragic experiences. My first reaction to this book after reading the first couple of chapters was WOW! This book is going to be a book I’m going to feel many emotions towards.

Bechdel's Identification of Sexuality

In the book “fun Home” there are a lot of issues with family attachment and sexuality that Bechdel points out to the reader. For instance, Bechdel mentions the fact that her father had a secret pertaining to his sexuality. Bechdel also mentions how she found her own sexuality in the novel. The book “Fun Home” presents people who are dealing with problems identifying who they are.  To be specific, there were two main characters who dealt with problems finding themselves throughout the book and that was the author Alison Bechdel and her father Bruce.

                Bruce used his obsession for decorating to escape from the unhappy life that he was living. Being married to a woman and having three children was not the life Bruce wanted to live, but it was a life that was presentable and to Bruce image was everything. Bechdel assumes that this hidden side of Bruce led to him feeling trapped and depressed which led to his so called “suicide” (which Bechdel is not really sure of). Bruce was not the only one who had a hard time identifying with who they are. Bechdel had a little trouble with finding herself as well. Towards the end of the book Bechdel starts to express the feeling and show the readers the feeling she had for women.

                In the book “Fun Home” there was a lot of quietness within Bechtel’s family, and I don’t mean real silence; there was a sort of emotional silence. Bechdel parents did not communicate well with her or her siblings. She grew up having parents who tried to escape the life they created.  Bechdel did not grow up in a household where she felt close to her family. At home is where one should feel the most love and affection but for Bechdel it was totally opposite.

Bechdel's weird family

In the book “Fun Home,” Bechdel goes into detail about the many problems that goes on in her very unique and awkward family. For example, Bechdel compares her family to the Addams family, which is a cartoon about a sort of strange family. “It was somewhere during those early years that I began confusing us with the Adams Family” Bechdel states while observing her family actions and personality.  

Bechdel’s relationship with her father was also a strange one. Bechdel’s Father (Bruce) had sort if an attachment problem with his family especially his children. Bruce spent more time on decorating his house than paying attention to his children. For example, Bechdel states, “I grew to resent the way my father treated his furniture like children, and his children like furniture.” Bechdel was showing the reader the way she felt about her father’s attachment problems. He showed more of an attachment to the material things in his house than the people he suppose to love. This problem eventually led to Bechdel resenting her father for a long time. When Bruce died, Bechdel did not have the normal reaction that a grieving daughter would have. For example, at her father’s funeral, Bechdel wondered what it would be like if people spoke the truth. She states, “There’s no mystery! He killed himself because he was a manic-depressive closeted fag and he couldn’t face living in this small-minded small town one more second.” Bechdel shows her inner feelings about her father’s death in that statement.

Bechdel wrote this book to show people how unique and weird her family was. She had a detached father who had a secret love for teenage boys; and a mother who was more interested in her master’s thesis and her play than her daughters first period. Throughout her life, Bechdel never got the love and affection that a child usually receives from their mother and father.

Bechdel's Purpose For Creating A Graphic Novel

In the book “Fun Home” Bechdel expresses her autobiography through pictures. This book was one of the first graphic novels I have ever read. This novel is unique because of the fact that Bechdel uses a sort of different way to tell her story. What was Bechdel’s purpose for using comics to write this novel? What was her purpose for writing and creating the novel “Fun Home”?

When starting to read this book, I really did not understand why an author would put pictures in a novel. As I continued reading the book I noticed that Bechdel’s pictures and comics went well with the emotion she was writing about. For instance, throughout the book the father’s facial expression was always plain and usually did not express any emotion.  I feel that without the comics that Bechdel presents in the novel, readers would not have realized Bruce’s (the father) detached emotion. Throughout the book Bruce seems distant from his family; he does not show the love and affection that a father usual shows towards their wife and children. Considering his job as an undertaker, he really had no choice but to have detached emotions, and the graphics really showed that.

I feel that Bechdel’s purpose of writing this novel was to tell her story in a way that was unusual but different. She was successful in separating herself from other authors and making her novel stand out from the ordinary autobiographies. My first reaction to the novel was that it was a weird book to read; but once I actually continued reading it and going through every chapter, I realized that this book is unique and an interesting read. This book not only kept my attention with its words but with its very detailed and descriptive pictures following the story Bechdel was telling. This book is a novel that sticks out from any piece of work I have ever read.

"Fun Home" My First Interpretation

The graphic novel “Fun Home” by Alison Bechdel is a unique book that tells a lot through its graphic description.  Bechdel makes herself the main character in this novel because the book is about her childhood. Bechdel says a lot through not only words but through her comics presented in the book. Each picture gives a clear image of the emotion she is trying to express. With each quote she has a picture to follow which gives the reader a perfect sense of imagery. Even though this book was not like any novel I have read in the past, I seem to find a certain attraction to the details in the pictures that followed the words she wrote.

When I first started reading the book “Fun Home” I already had certain implications and assumptions about the novel. For instance, when I read the title Fun Home, I assumed that the book would be for a younger audience.  Also after seeing the pictures I thought the author was implying that this book was going to be for younger readers. When I got into the novel, I saw that the dialect was definitely not written for a younger audience.  When I read the fact that Bruce (Bechdel’s father) had a liking to teenage boys I knew that Bechdel was definitely writing a story that was meant for adult crowd.  

My first interpretation of the book was that this book was weird and very out of the ordinary. Once I got into reading the first couple of chapters, I thought that this was a unique way to tell a story. Bechdel chose a unique style to tell her family’s life and story. Not only was this book full of graphics but it is a true story about the author’s life. I found it very interesting how an author can tell a true story through pictures.