Casey12345's Blog

casey12345 — Mon, 27 Apr 2009 15:22:52 +0000

Several different books are mentioned within Dinaw Mengestu’s “The Beautiful Things That Heaven Bears,” that suggests a profound parallel with Sepha Stephanos’ journey in America. Although many works are mentioned such as “The Education of Henry Adams” and “The Brothers Karamazov,” the novel “Dante’s Inferno” seems to bear the greatest resemblance to Sepha’s narrative. Specifically, the three lines mentioned from Joesph’s notes drastically illustrates both the jagged times and the unique moments that merged over the years to form his memories of his time in America. As the passage is highlighted in Joseph’s notes;

Through a round aperture I saw appear,

Some of the beautiful things that Heaven bears,

Where we came forth, and once more saw the stars (Mengestu, 99).

Joseph interprets these lines as the declaration of a natural hell, with few and small hints of heaven in between. Joseph has a personal emotional attachment to these words as an immigrant escaping from an extremely hostile environment. Like Joseph, Sepha can understand these three lines better than most. While practically all of the books mentioned throughout this story can be referred to as written for an audience of high intelligence and reason, “Dante’s Inferno” seems to provide something else for Joseph, Kenneth and Sepha. “The Brothers Karamazov” offers an outlet for Sepha’s rigid daily lifestyle and presents some sort of entertainment for him. “Dante’s Inferno” suggests a similar diversion for Sepha, however, rather than a distraction, these three lines seem to offer a certain sense of hope in these three characters. “Dante’s Inferno” not only reflects Sepha’s, Joseph’s and Kenneth’s experiences in America, but the book bestows a glimpse of faith and anticipation for their lives in the future.

Sepha, Joseph, and Kenneth immigrated to America, leaving behind their own personal hell. In Africa, these three individuals experienced situations so rough that they may look upon a tragedy in America with grace and dignity. Sepha experienced horrors as a child that most individuals don’t bear witness to throughout their entire lives. When Sepha was only sixteen years old, soldiers invaded his house and free of remorse, beat his mother and took away his father. Sepha, holding his seven year old brother against his chest, watched the soldiers tear apart his house and his family within just a couple of hours. After hours of continuous torture, Sepha stood by and watched his father be taken from him and his family to his death. After this, Sepha immediately left Africa. He hasn’t returned since. Although Mengestu doesn’t detail Joseph and Kenneth’s backgrounds in great depth, he suggests that their childhoods weren’t much easier than Sepha’s.

Sepha struggled in America. Although his life was far from easy, Sepha found a way to stay positive. Whereas a need to make money can usually consume an individual’s life, Sepha tends to push aside that obstacle. While he continues to run his store, Sepha doesn’t appear too worried about the hour he arrives to open the store and how early he leaves to close it. In addition, Sepha’s lack of care becomes apparent with Naomi around. Although Naomi does sweep the store and tend to many of the store’s needs, she also detracts his attention away from customers. While reading with Naomi, Sepha’s priorities slip away and he places all of his focus on being with Naomi. Sepha doesn’t allow his complications to overwhelm him. Like the lines from “Dante’s Inferno,” Sepha is indeed living in his own hell, after leaving a country that provided him with a similar level of anguish.

Although Sepha spends every day like it’s latter, Sepha does arbitrarily get those glimpses of heaven that “Dante’s Inferno” describes. Sepha’s interactions with Judith and Naomi provide him with the momentum he needs to accomplish his daily tasks. Sepha’s initial reaction of Judith and Naomi was fed to him by the construction workers renovating Judith’s house. The workers are harsh on Judith, assigning her a serrated appearance; “Through them I learned that the woman was a lesbian bitch with too much money on her hands…There was no husband, boyfriend, or girlfriend, but she was a lesbian, you could bet on that. All you had to do was look at that short hair and nearly flat chest to see it.” (Mengestu, 17)

Sepha may not have given in to these remarks, but they sparked his curiosity at the very least. As the workers entered and left his store each day, Sepha couldn’t help but wonder what a woman like Judith was doing in that neighborhood. Finally, Sepha encountered Judith, sparking an introverted and confusing friendship that lasts the entire book.

Sepha initially meets Judith at the end of September that very same year. In their first interaction, Judith admires Sepha’s wedding garment while sitting on her porch steps with her daughter Naomi. Though brief, the encounter seemed to impress something special upon both characters. This relationship afforded Sepha with considerably luxurious moments for a person in his position. For Sepha, his time spent with Judith and Naomi became his glimpses of heaven. After Judith finished renovating, she made a habit of stopping by Sepha’s store for petty goods and afternoon conversation. Sepha and Judith’s relationship gradually extended to his connection with her daughter, Naomi. Ironically, after Naomi and Judith’s relationship strained after Naomi ran away from her mother, Judith and Sepha’s relationship strengthened. Judith and Naomi regularly made errands to Sepha’s store, and Sepha’s friendship with both Judith and Naomi flourished from there. After a couple of weeks, Naomi began coming into the store practically every day, reporting her daily events. Sepha was more than willing to lend an ear, and happy to pass judgment on the impressive eleven year old. As Sepha notes on Naomi, “Naomi was eleven years old, and she took pride in being able to shake her head at the world. She was convinced that American foreign policy in the Middle East was a failure, that a two-state solution in Israel was inevitable, and that enough wasn’t being done about the global AIDS crisis. She tucked and folded the creases in the Washington Post with an agility fitting an old man, and even the way she leaned against the counter, her head resting on her chin as she thumbed her way through the articles, spoke of a wisdom that seemed to belong more to her mother than to her.” (Mengestu, 29)

His relationship with Naomi develops into a certain rapture that was missing from his life prior to her and Judith’s presence. After weeks of spending his afternoons with Naomi, Sepha finally receives a dinner invitation from the mother and daughter in his mailbox. Sepha proceeds through a normal dinner, until Judith kisses him. Sepha is caught off guard by the gesture and is unsure how to react. Although he goes along with it, his emotions afterwards are completely mixed.

I plan to discuss Sepha’s experience in Africa. In addition, I will talk about about Sepha’s relationship with Judith and Naomi and how that relationship became Sepha’s “glimpses of heaven.” I will discuss his dinners with them and his time spent with Naomi in the store.

casey12345 — Mon, 13 Apr 2009 02:22:52 +0000

Alana makes a valid argument that Komunyakaa feels some sort of guilt for surviving the war while his fellow soldiers died. By stating that he “goes down the 58, 022 names, half-expecting to find my own in letters like smoke,” Komunyakaa expresses his pain of not only the Vietnam war itself, but also of his survival. I agree with Alana’s interpretation of “I am stone, I am flesh,” however I think that there is more to that statement. By saying this, Komunyakaa is also referring to his survival in the war. Although he is human, flesh and blood, he is one of the surviving soldiers. Meanwhile, he has to look at the 58,022 individuals that died fighting with him. I think Komunyakaa accepts his survival, but it clearly causes him grief. Turner’s poem “Night in Blue” does echo similar thoughts that Komunyakaa displays. In “Night in Blue,” Turner questions what the war has left him with throughout the past year. I agree that the memories of war can never leave a person, and Turner and Komunyakaa are stuck with these thoughts for the rest of their lives. I never considered that Turner was not completely satisfied with his war experience, but this is a very valid assumption. Alana uses this line as evidence of her assumption: “I never dug the graves in Talafar. I never held the mother crying in Ramadi. I never lifted my friend’s body when they carried him home.” Initially, I saw these lines as a comfort to the fact that he never had to experience these things, but now I understand that he may not see himself as a worthy soldier. Finally, Alana forms a solid conclusion. Turner and Komunyakaa are very similar in the ways that they view their war experiences. They both feel as though their war experience was not enough, and finally, that their survival was not worthy.

Here, Bullet Comparison

casey12345 — Sat, 11 Apr 2009 23:40:55 +0000

Yusef Komunyakaa’s “Facing It” is very similar to Turner’s “Night in Blue.” Both poems indicate the emotional and physical aspects that war has left them with. In “Facing It,” Komunyakaa, a Vietnam veteran, writes of his trip inside the Vietnam Veterans Memorial. Komunyakaa searches for his name among the 58,022 names displayed, stating that he expects to find his name in smoke on the wall. As he stares at the names, he is brought back to his time in Vietnam. He sees planes in the sky and soldiers he was there with. One vet in particular comes to memory through the wall. He looks closer and sees a woman attempting to erase the names on the wall, but then looks again and realizes that she is brushing a boy’s hair. This image exhibits the pain that the war has caused. This woman that he sees is trying to take back the war, and the children that entered it and died. There is an emphasis on the young that died, placed on the image of the boy getting his hair brushed. “Facing It” leaves a clear image that the Vietnam War left this particular veteran with nothing but wishes that the war never took place. “Night in Blue” has a similar theme. At this point in time, Turner has been in the war for one year. Although he has not yet returned like Komunyakaa, he shares a similar viewpoint with him as to what the war has left him with. Turned begins by questioning what he received from his year in Iraq. He eventually asks himself whether the war was worth it, concluding that he is left with no words to speak of war. Turner states that, “I have only the shadows under the leaves to take with me,” and like Komunyakaa, Turner is left with simply the pain and the grief that war placed on his soul, and nothing more. Although these two men are at different times in their service life as they reflect back on the Vietnam and Iraq wars, the soldiers share an immense pain and regret for the wars.

Baldwin’s “Down at the Cross”

casey12345 — Fri, 20 Mar 2009 22:05:05 +0000

“Down at the Cross” delineates the assumptions that Baldwin challenges of America’s racial and religious lexicon. Baldwin expresses his concern for the diction associated with the terms “black” and “white.” “White,” as referenced in most situations, can mean anything from pure and innocent to calm and heavenly. On the other hand, “black” can be understood as dark, evil, and cold. Baldwin addresses this, stating that this is not just an odd coincidence. He understands that these associations are still presumed in today’s society, whether individuals are willing to admit this or not. Baldwin states that “…black has become a beautiful color – not because it is loved but because it is feared.” He is extremely critical of underlying beliefs of the “white man,” which he references over and over again throughout his essay. He later states that White Americans have assumed that the words “white” and “civilization” are synonymous with each other, although this has never been true. Baldwin places the necessity on Black Americans to change and accept this vocabulary. However, according to Baldwin, the change needs to occur within White Americans, and the blame falls practically solely on those shoulders.

casey12345 — Fri, 13 Feb 2009 21:39:37 +0000

Throughout Malamud’s “The Assistant,” there is a constant theme of the emphasis on suffering and what that entails for certain characters. Morris clearly demonstrates the importance of suffering to a Jew, stating that suffering is a part of his religion and something to be proud of. Ida and Helen continue to suffer, even as the store progresses. And although the store grounds Frank after a childhood of wandering and abandonment, his long hours and his hard work lead him toward a life of suffering. After Morris dies, Frank becomes Morris. He takes over the store and in the end, becomes a Jew. Ida continues her involvement with the store, as does Helen. Although Morris’ life ends, the suffering continues. Furthermore, I think Helen’s relationship with Frank will continue to develop. After Helen sees Frank sleeping in the store, she recognizes all of his hard work for the family. And Frank, at Morris’ funeral, ends up falling into Morris’ grave, chasing after a flower that Helen threw. Although Frank and Helen end the book with a somewhat awkward relationship, I believe that that relationship will continue to blossom after the book finishes.

Hello world!

casey12345 — Fri, 13 Feb 2009 19:38:30 +0000

Welcome to WordPress.com. This is your first post. Edit or delete it and start blogging!