Ideas for Research Paper

First off, i am very interested in doing my research paper in the style of multigenre. I think it's a very creative way of writing a research paper. Honestly, I'm sick of the traditional way. Plus, I am more of a creative writer...i'll probably have too much fun with this type of paper.

Some different topics that i have in mind:

- I like the idea that Shannon brought up, Whalt Whitman and the idea of what it means to
be an american

- Maybe possibly talk about the redundant stereotypes from American Born Chinese (about
Chinese people in general) and maybe, in a multigeneral sense, talk about the fine ways
of the chinese culture that Americans tend to overlook.

- The Bluest Eye, mention Pecola's obession with blue eyes and incorporate historical facts
on how blue eyes in general became such a hit. Then incorporating Pecola's racial struggle
by talking about brown eyes.

.....yeah these ideas are out there, I'm most likely going to go along with my first bullet idea, but we shall see.

Remind me to never hit snooze again...my "blanket" is too comfy

The two panels that I am looking at are on pages 182 and 183. These two panels are quite simplistic but a deeper meaning of the whole book is derived from these two panels. These two panels first introduce the blanket that Raina had made for Craig. The interesting thing about this blanket are all the different shapes sewn together. What's interesting about them is that most of the designs are used throughout this novel in different frames. From my perspective, all the whispey patterns used in this blanket remind me of windy, wintery day. When the wind blows a wintery day, the snow scrolls across the landscape in wave - like lines or in spiral motions. But, there is something about the blanket (s) within this novel that spark some interest. Like how the winter has different wave-like motions, so does the blanket. Particularly on pages 182 and 183, the blanket is still to our eyesight the way in which the blanket is drawn is forever moving. In essence though, these particular panels and the novel in general bring forth ideas upon the uses of a blanket. From this novel i see a blanket used for: comfort, attachment of emotion, hiding specific unclean deed, deep love, boy mischief, etc, etc. Like a novel, a blanket tells a story.

Im chosing Craig's relationship bewteen God. Craig has a guilty yet agnostic relationship with God - almost resentful. Throughout the novel Craig struggles to get his mind off of the apparent guilt he has committed against God. The panels that i'm looking at to further describe this relationship are the last two panels of page 77. These two panels of a representation of jesus living in a mangor with a glowing light above his head. what's ironic is that Craig always talked about going in the dark, spider - infested cubby. All in all, Craig could feel resentment to God for all the love he receives. Craig always feel unlike all the others, not as holy especially. He wants to lay in that golden manjor....

Semi Close Reading for Oranges...

The whole rant that Jeanette goes on pages on 93 - 95 are very interesting and truthful. Within this particular passage, there are significant one - liners that encourage the reader to nod his head in agreement because he cannot help but fully agree. The first line of this long passage, "Time is a great deadener" (Winterson 93) is a great opening sentence. From this sentence, she is basically time gets old, people move on from the "used to be norms"; and on behalf of Jeanette's case, when approaching the end of this novel, she realized that upon returning to her home town after some years, times changed - the normal life of the town was no longer normal, but bored and tired. Winterson's whole opinion on history is very intriguing as well.

Winterson keeps on repeating the idea of how we as human beings like to deny our history and that we chose to "story tell" our history just so we can conform it into what we believe history should be. When talking about history, Winterson mentions that "We pointed the finger..." (Winterson 94). As a human society, it's only human nature for the world to blame the past for what has happened to us in the past - it's a safe excuse. It is true that we will never be able to escape from the past but that doesn't mean we cannot learn from the vast history of our world. "So the past, becaus it is the past, is only malleable where once it was flexible" (Winterson 95).

Yeah, this is all i got....

Power of Belief

I am Roman Catholic so i believe in God. I am not just using my religion as an excuse to believe, i really do believe. But lately, I have been questioning the bible and what not. There is just a lot of ambiguity. Anyhoot, i could go on a huge rant with this topic, but I shall digress. Beliefs being challenged? Really the only times that this happens is when I have a religious discussion with my athiest friends - i don't know, they bring up worthy questions. I do believe in the theme of science and how the world was created by both the hand of God and the big bang or whatever have you. I'm always up for different theories whether religious or not.

The beliefs that are quite strong in Oranges are not the Only Fruit is homosexuality is obviously a major no no. As proclaimed on page 12 of this novel that "It has been known for the most holy men to be suddenly filled with evil. And how much more a woman, and how much more a child. Parents, watch your chidren for the signs. Husbands, watch your wive" (Winterson 12). Throughout this first half of the novel, Winterson would capitalize words or short phrases relating to sexual encounters. Ya know the Next Door and Down There. Sexuality really is a sensitive issue and is never taken lightly.

An obvious example would be when the town first was aware of homosexuality, this orange/ fireball of little demon started following her around. The ongoing story of Sir perceval and his idea of perfection. Jeanette's town revolves around being perfect because they Proxy-Connection: keep-alive
Cache-Control: max-age

All Text Connection

After reading American Born Chinese and The Bluest Eye, my perspective on race has totally changed and I have realized that I have been quite ignorant. From reading these two novels, one can obviously see that many people from different races dream of becoming apart of the white race. Actually, it's more of a necessity to them. People of a different race yearn to be beautiful and excepted - like the white rice. To characters from American Born Chinese or The Bluest Eye, the white race is the perfect race; and the pressure of perfection makes these characters believe that they should feel ashamed for the culture and race that he or she represents. Obviously, Jin Wang is ashamed of his ethnicity for when Wei Chen - Sun is introduced to his class, Jin Wang proclaims, "Something makes me want to beat him up"(Yang 36). In truth, Jin Wang really wants to beat himself up because Wei Chen is just another reminder of how much Jin Wang is ashamed of his race. Thus, he turns his shame into the white American way and demands conformity from Wei Chen.

In response to these themes, I am just simply awstruck at some things - especially from The Bluest Eye. After reading this book, it finally hit me on how much the white race has been idolized for so long. The whole obsession that pecola had with the white porcelain doll with the blue eyes kind of reminded me of the Nazi era; when Hitler proclaimed that all humans blonde and blue - eyed prevailed and everyone else perished - It's frightening. I don't know i've always idolized other races more than my own race - I really can't explain why. But going back to the bluest eye, yes the book revolved around the need for being white but the way in which Pecola, Claudia, or any black person were treated by their own in this story was disturbing - the beatings they received. Then again, it does go back to the white race during the era slavery. Whippings and bad behaviors were the only things the black slaves new. Slaves were treated like animals thus the pattern unfortunately continues.

One of the most powerful passages for was from The Bluest Eye. This part goes from page 193 to basically to the end of the novel. The conversation that Pecola had with this mysterious character made me imagine her having a conversation with a white porcelain doll. It made me imagine that Pecola had become so crazed with the idea of having blue eyes that she actually believes she has them - soaphead church's miracle came true. But after reading a particular part of this conversation, another idea occurred to me: "The sun is too bright. It hurts my eyes", "Not mine. I don't even blink. Look I can look right at the sun" (Morrison 195). It appears as though that Pecola is blind. I guess one could interpret that God has blinded her for this constant need to be something she is not. She couldn't except herself for who she truly was. Thus, if you can't see yourself for who you truly are, why should you see at all?

Watching the video and reading the passage or chapter on Soaphead Church were the most difficult for me. On behalf of the video, when the interviewer asked the one boy as to which doll was the nicer doll and he picks up the white doll, such an action kinda of broke my heart. This boy is at a very young age and makes me upset to see that such a young child could already feel that he is not as nice as a human being as a white person. Now onto Soaphead Church. Yeah, the whole note he wrote to God confessing as to why he did things to little girls as if he did nothing wrong just disturbed me. Then again, he does confess that he knew what he was doing wasn't right but he justifies it by saying that the girls who came to him were basically asking for it. But im going to stop before i go on a tagent.

Sorry for the length, enjoy!