Discourse on Colonialism

Aime Cesaire wrote Discourse On Colonialism in 1955. Cesaire takes a risky stance arguing against colonization and the by-products thats come along with it. Cesaire blames the poor relationship amongst colonizers and colonies on Europe. Europe does nothing more than colonize smaller nations and colonies to exploit them namely for financial purposes and also for their natural resources. Europe created two problems in Cesaire's words the Proletariat Problem and the Colony Problem. The Colonial problem is one rooted with diseased society, that there is no positive relationship. The largest problem in Colonization is that colonies are not advances once colonized. Furthermore the issue pertains around the fact the relationship is centered around, "forced labor, intimidation, pressure, the police, taxation, theft, rape, compulsory crops, contempt, mistrust, arrogance, self-complacency, swinishness, brainless elites, degraded masses." All of which problems are sure to set the local culture back a few steps.

The last remaining problem is the Proletariat Problem. This problem exist due to the racial nature of forced labor and colonization. With the racial nature slavery can be connected and compared with Colonization. Thus Cesaire concludes that colonization is a form of dehumanization. Europe has a fascination with dehumanizing minorities especially blacks in Cesaire's opinion. Cesaire writes in a unique perspective and uses the example of Hitler and the Jews and compares that with Europe and Colonization. In conclusion it was an interesting read with many important points brought to the forefront.

57% Irish

57% Irish is the story of a man who has been given the responsibilty of developing a test.  However, this is not just a simple test, this is a test to determine how "Irish" someone is. This test is to be used to determine who is Irish enough to stay, and who must be forced to leave.  This test is made up of many different components, and it measures how one responds to certain things that they are seeing.  The way they respond, according to the main charcater's original hypothesis, determines how Irish they are. 
The reason this story is called 57% Irish is because when the main character gave the test to a native Irishman, the man scored 57%. However, when the test was given to someone that was not of Irish decent, they scored a lot higher, which asked the question, is the test really legitimate, and can it be trusted? 
In the middle of this story of the test, there is a sub plot between the main character and his Russian girlfriend.  The main character has a child with his girlfriend which forces him to ponder the question, is the child Irish or not?  When it is determined that the child will most likely have to leave the country if its mom is found not to be "Irish" enough, the main character decides to take the child's fate into his own hands.  He ends up changing the test so his girlfriend, and more importantly their child, can stay in the country. 
So my main question that I have is this:

Do you believe the "Irish Test" was a good indicator of how "Irish" someone was, and whether they should be able to remain in the country or not?
If you do belive it was, how do you explain the foreigner getting a better score than the native Irishman?

Guess Who's Coming for Dinner

This short story entails a family man named Larry, who finds himself in a controversial situation. Larry comes from an Irish background and thinks his family is perfect until a certain situation comes upon him. His daughter Stephanie wants to date/bring home a black man and he doesn't necessarily approve. Larry's family frowns upon the idea that he isn't accepting of Stephanie's new crush and call him a "bigot". Larry doesn't approve of the interracial relationship but claims he isn't a racist. He goes on too prove why is this and makes a couple of interesting points. This isn't the complete story but it sparks a question. Is it racist if Larry doesn't approve of the interracial relationship his daughter is having? This is not something that only happens in the book but in real life as well. For an example ever since I was young my dad always said I would marry a beautiful arabic woman. Obviously now that I am older he mind who I married as long as I was in love. My dad might not see eye to eye at first, but my happiness would make up for all his doubts. What also must be accounted for is the old, conservative mentality. Maybe where Larry was brought up it interracial relationships werent common. The saying goes "People fear the unknown". Maybe now Larry's daughters will educate him more and his perspective black people will change. I guess this still doesnt answer the question, but maybe you guys can. Is Larry a racist? yes/no?

A Wife's Story

Like many of the other works we have read, A Wife's Story has the themes of gender, culture, and the American dream. Panna Bhatt is an Indian women who recently moved to Manhattan to get her degree in special education. She slowly adjusts to life in the states, but is still appalled at some aspects of American life.  She goes to see a play by Mannet, and is offended by the generalizations made about Indian culture and life during the play. She also comments afterwards on how she is not used to simple things like hugging a man or holding his hand in public; it would be frowned upon in India.
Eventually, her husband comes to visit her. He is amazed at American culture, goods, and people. After much shopping and sightseeing, her husband asks her to return to India with him. He does not like the way Panna is being treated by men in New York. Although, he ends up returning to India without her.
Which theme (gender, culture, or the idea of the American dream) is most prominent and important in this story and why?

Persepolis 247- End

This section of the novel begins with Marjane returning back to Iran. At this point so much has gone wrong in her life and she is actually relieved to go home. Marjane is extremely shocked about how much Iran has changed from what she was used to and she had to readjust yet again to a new life. All of these changes and stories that she hears from other people lead her into one of the darkest times of her life. Marjane become extremely depressed up to the point where she did not do anything. As time went on Marji began to recover and got into a school and became an aerobics instructor. Later on Marji met Reza, her future husband, and from there they had a good life until she realized she no longer loved him. Towards the end of the novel Marji is happy to be leaving Iran. That is not the life she is used after living in Austria and experiencing freedom. In this part of the novel the reader can see that Marji is really trying hard to make a good life for herself and actually find herself. She goes to France to pursue her dreams and finally put her education to good use Marjane is also more aware of all that her parents went through for her to live a better life and so she is finally taking the initiative to do what her parents want for her. No matter where Marji goes, she will always have a part of herself in Iran and that is something that will never change.

Persepolis P.197-246

In this section of the book, we continue to see Marjane loose her innocence when she starts staying in a communal apartment with eight homosexual men. Her mother surprises her by calling to say she is coming to visit. Marjane spends time with her mother and, because her apartment is only hers for a short  amount of time, she finds a new place to stay, a room in the house of Frau Dr. Heller. She continues to get involved in drugs after she finds out her current boyfriend is gay. After she finds this out she confides in her physics teacher to process her thoughts. 
     She meets a new boy named Markus and forms a relationship with him, however, no one  is in approval about this relationship. Marjane gets Markus involved in drugs as well, and gains the title Drug dealer.  She feels upset and ashamed that her actions of rebellion have gone this far. Why do you think that she is constantly rebelling? How has her loss of innosance played a role in her rebellion?
      As this section continues we learn that her life is a struggle, being away from her parents with lack of money. Alot of people in her knew area seem to not like her because of her name as a drug dealer(her principal). Later on she finds out that her current boyfriend is cheating on her and is very hurt by this. Her struggles continues with no money and no place to stay because Dr. Heller and Marjane get into a fight. She lives on the street for two months and gets very sick. She later learns that her parents have been trying to contact her for the past two months that she has been living on the street. Her life in this new area has gone downhill. She returns to Iran with her parents at the end of this section. How has being away from her parents in a new place changed Marjane as a person, and a kid? Do you think that everything she is going through and has been through as a child has made her a stronger person, or affected her negatively?

Persepolis 73-134

In Persepolis, the war has just started and it's already causing chaos in the population. The protest demonstrations soon got out of hand when things got physical. Men were beating protesters with bats over fundamentalism. Even though Marjane and her parents took a vacation from the madness of Iran to Spain, things worsened. Ever since the U.S. embassy was occupied, the country has lost control. Women were fighting over simple groceries, gas shortages made it impossible to even take a simple drive to a restaurant for dinner, and now they have involved the kids in the war. The boys were brainwashed by the government with the keys they recieved. As Shabab said, they were "convinced that the afterlife is even better than disneyland ." But the image on page 102 doesn't look the part. How do you think the war has affected Iran's society?

Can we also recognize how awesome Marjane's dad is in this panel: