Saturday, August 29, 2009
Group A Connector
Post your connections to the book. These may be connections to: your own life (text to life)To happenings at school or in the neighborhood or in the newspaper (text to world)To other books or stories (text to text)To other writings on the same topic (text to text)To other writings by the same author (text to author)Please respond to each other's entries.
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ReplyDeleteThe fact that I couldn’t relate to the events in this story made it more interesting to me. I enjoyed learning about Indian customs and beliefs because they were so foreign to me, and were nothing like my own. I also enjoyed learning about the different religious customs and traditions, reading about the different foods they created, finding out about the kolams, and being shocked when learning that women were sent into outhouses when they had their period. The historical facts weaved into the story also kept me reading, but were facts that often surprised me. I never knew that many Jews came to India to seek refuge during WWII, that the swastika was a sacred Indian symbol, or that the British Indian army was the largest all volunteer force.
ReplyDeleteHowever, I always tell my students that what makes a book so powerful is the author’s ability to create a character that we, the reader, can connect with emotionally. I have not experienced watching my father be beaten almost to death, or worrying about being married off, or living with a family that treats me like dirt, but my ability to connect to Vidya’s emotions made this a powerful novel. We all have lost someone special to us, or perhaps have known someone that was severely injured. My teammate recently lost her husband. Over six months ago he suffered from an aneurism and remained in a comma for months before passing away. Just like Vidya’s father, she watched him live those months as a shell of who he used to be. Because of this experience, I understood the guilt and pain Vidya felt. I could also connected to Vidya’s emotion of worry when her brother, Kitta, decided to go off to war. Although I have not had a family member join the armed forces, I am watching my boyfriend’s brother prepare for his third tour to the Middle East. It is a time of worry and anxiety for his whole family, so I connect to how Vidya felt when Kitta left. Padma Venkatraman created a character that was beliveable and experienced emotions that all readers could relate to.
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ReplyDeleteAshley, I agree with you. As I read this story I connected with the main character right away. I think this is what makes the story so powerful. I enjoyed reading it and couldn't put it down. I was emotionally invested in the story and I felt really upset when I heard Vidya refer to her father as an "idiot" when he was hurt. That's what makes this book so good, even though we are so different from Vidya we can automatically care about her as a character.
ReplyDeleteIn the beginning of the story I learned about a time period in India I knew little about. I made the connection to the civil rights time period in America. In the chapter Black Crow, the little British girl is extremely rude to Vidya and says, "Don't touch me blackie!..." The Indians weren't allowed to go to some places the British were and were clearly mistreated. Gandhi is mentioned as well as peaceful protests, which reminded me of Martin Luther King, Jr. It made me understand how difficult it is to maintain a peaceful stance in such unfair and cruel times. I can’t imagine how someone can beat another human being, especially one who isn’t even fighting back.
I also have small text to self connections. Vidya was treated differently because of her gender. Growing up I was also treated differently because I was a girl. My parents were both immigrants and had very traditional values. I made my brother's bed and cleaned his room every Saturday. I wasn't allowed to do things with my father many times because I was told I was a girl. However unfair I felt this was at the time, it nowhere near compares to what Vidya went through.
I was able to make a text to text connection. I read The God of Small Things during my undergrad in a class called Postcolonial Literature. Both books often reference the many dieties in India. I think this is partly to explain Indian beliefs to Western readers, as I am sure many of us don't have a good understanding of their complex belief system. In both books, I found the characters comparing themselves to dieties, or trying to be like them. I find it fascinating that different dieties have personality traits, which can be both good and bad. I am Catholic, and have a much different view of religion.
ReplyDeleteIn a text to world connection, I can imagine how Vidya feels about her father in some way. My grandmother suffers from dementia, and I often wonder how much she understands about what's going on around her. Vidya felt comforted seeing her father watch the fireworks, and I feel comforted when I notice my grandmother has a good day and remembers how to do simple things. It helps me hold on to the thought that part of her might still understand what's happening around her.
Diane, I was really surprised to learn about the similarities between the Civil Rights movement in the United States and the time period in India during this novel. It was so upsetting to read about the segregation in India like on page 6 when Vidya says "...there's a new cinema theater that's opened up, and she says it's not all reserved for whites, and there's a section on the ground floor where Indians are allowed..." When I read about the segregation/racism that occurred in the 1950s in the United States it always makes me cringe to think that this actually happened in our nation's history. It is so upsetting to know that this was happening in other places too.
ReplyDeleteOur text book outlines that quality literature includes powerful dialogue. Page 22 states, “Speech reveals character. When a person’s mouth opens, truth emerges about personality, motives, desires, prejudices, and feelings.” I think the author’s ability to create such commanding dialogue allows us to connect with Vidya. Because of the truth in her responses we too feel the sting when she referred to her father as an “idiot” and the comfort when she watched her father look at the fireworks.
Laura, my grandmother is also experiencing dementia. It has been a slow process, but still very painful. It is hard to talk to my grandmother when she forgets my mother’s name, can’t remember if she took her medicine, and calls me only to repeat the same conversation we had an hour before. Like Vidya, I am watching my grandmother become a shell of who she used to be.
There are times in this book where I feel a total disconnect to the cruelness, and insensitive behaviors that Vidya has to endure. I say disconnect because I’ve never experienced this meanness from anyone let alone the people who should love you and show you kindness: your family. I’ve never felt held back because I am a woman. I certainly have read other books where gender roles are very harsh and restricting and insensitive behaviors are displayed.
ReplyDeleteSome of the examples that struck me as harsh and insensitive are: the treatment Vidya, Kitta and their mother received at the grandfather’s home. The aunts were ruthless and unrelenting. I don’t understand what they could have been thinking. Why they felt that this family that had been through so much deserved more of their hatred.
I also see the gender roles as being incredibly restrictive. The men didn’t seem to want to restrict the women as much as the other women wanted to hold down the younger girls. Raman, Vidya’s father and her grandfather certainly were more inclined to let a woman study and decide where her own life would go than periamma and Sarasa chithi. I’ve seen women sabotage other women in the workplace and I fail to understand this behavior.
A time when I felt a deep connection with Vidya’s feelings was in the chapter Deepavali. In this seen I could feel the pain Vidya was experiencing as she remembered the happy family times she had had with just her immediate family on Deepavali. She remembered how beautiful her mother was and the special glimpses her father and mother once exchanged with each other. My throat hurts and I feel like I could cry when I reread this section. I know the feeling of loving family times. I know the feeling of having loving parents and of being loving parents for my own children. I know how much it must hurt to see that all change.
A text to world connection is I have heard that women who are being abused in marriages say that they find a sense of security by putting away any small amount of money that they can save from grocery etc. Vidya says she felt the same strange sense of security by storing away the few extra cents that she saved from the bus ride. I believe it gave her the feeling of power. This was money she could do with whatever she wanted. One area of her life she had some control.
As I go back and read all of your comments and connections, I realize how much I enjoyed this book. It is like I tell my students, you know you've read a good book when you turn the last page and you don't want the book to end. My connections and even disconnection as well as reading all of your connections helped me bond with this book and the characters. Laura and Ashley you have made an extraordinary connection and I can see the comparisons you are drawing. Thank you for sharing.
ReplyDeleteHi ladies, I missed the first week of class, and I have been posting within the wrong group. I hope this is the second and third grade teachers group! So...here are my thoughts:
ReplyDeleteAt the beginning of the book, I saw Vidya as a very independent, self-motivated character that wanted nothing more than to go to school and be free. There could be nothing farther from the person I was at I was at her age. At that point in my life, I was picturing my future married with children. Yet, as I continued reading I realized we had many things in common. Although I saw my future much differently than Vidya, I realized that we both had plans for where we saw our life going and how we pictured our futures, yet both of us had experiences that changed our lives. The family as she knew it was no longer after the protest event. My life had changed after I heard news of my sister’s death in a car accident. My family as I knew it completely changed after my sister was killed in a car accident. On one hand I was mourning my sister whom I’d expected to always be around. On the other hand I was dealing with the fact that my mother also struggling with the loss of her daughter, had completely changed and I wondered if she would ever go back to the happy person she was before. I believe Vidya and I both experienced a feeling of defeat, which lingers knowing that truly we have no control, we can try to plan on things happening in a certain way, but truly it is out of our hands. Stepping back and thinking about it, is quite scary. Yet, often there is no time to sit and linger. We have to pick up the pieces and in many cases grown up a little sooner than we planned. Vidya had to sacrifice many things, as I did to help our families cope. Experiencing an unexpected event such as Vidya’s and my own, I think we hold on tightly trying to control the little pieces in our life, just as Vidya did when she chased down Kitta to speak with him one last time as he headed out for an unknown future. I found myself relating to her experiences, and trenches in the road that we all face. Vidya losing her father and not being able to speak to him, her dreams shattering and life changing as she knew it in a moment. Yet, life moves on and we must move with it just as Vidya was eventually able to conquer her dream of going to college.
Ashley, I definitely agree with you that the ability to connect with a character makes the text much more interesting and gives the reader the drive to read on. Even though the Indian culture may be foreign to many readers, the author did an excellent job of showing the character's emotions, but also letting you infer her emotions through the chapters. I also believe everyone has had something life changing happen to them, and therefore can relate to the feelings Vidya experiences throughout the story.
ReplyDeleteLynn, I really agree with you about how the two older aunts treated Vidya and her family. First of all, they had been through so much. Second of all, Vidya's family seemed so helpful to them, between cooking at watching the baby. And finally, if women aren't treated fairly, I would expect them to band together, but in this case, the aunts seemed to find happiness in believing they were above somebody in power and social status.
ReplyDeleteI have never felt pressure from my family to act "girly" but I have from society. I grew up as a tomboy and I definitely had adults who made comments to me about what I wore and what I played with. However, I'm sure Vidya' situation was 10 times worse. I cannot imagine living that way.
Sarah, I am sorry to hear about your sister. I have seen deaths in my parents families and my friends families totally change family dynamics, for both good and bad. After Vidya's father died, both she and Kitta seemed to mature. Vidya especially seemed to have more responsibility and to consider things in more depth. I think that this was both a result of their father's injury, and their roles in their new home.