Battle Royal: The Invisible Man

I think that the story will proceed with him going off to college. My hope is that he ends up a successful man, he deserves to be after what he has been through. Maybe his ideas about himself will change for the better while he is in college. He will fianlly see that he is who is he is. After he realized what he needs to to purge some of the horrible things that he lives with, he will be able to go onto bigger and better things. But there is also a side to this where saying, racism was such a problem then that he may no get to where he could have been. Meaning, without the racism and segregation of whites and African Americans, he may have been able to get to achieve more and be taken seriously by the whites that harass him. So there are two alternate ending to this story, but my hope is that it goes more towards happily ever after, even though it mostly likely will not be a fairy tale ending.

Frank Chin- Sections 25-31

I do agree with him when he says that the stereotypes of asians has become so far from the truth, this is true. When it is mentioned in a movie that asians have no identity and become americanized and therefore should not take offense to the racism that is sometimes conveyed. I do not agree with this, that is there culture and whether they decided to assimilate or not, that is still their culture and who they are. Asians have a right to be angry if someone is racist towards them. He also mentions people taking tales like mulan and making her more of a hero than in the original. This is good, its empowering to little girls. But, on the other hand, it is bad because then it gives this additional stereotype that chinese men treat women horribly. It was also one written in a magazine that Chinese American women prefer caucasians to Chinese American men. Why? Because they see chinese american men as having an identity crisis. The overall message that there are real chinese people and fake ones becuase they became americanized, is not. That is my take because people do differen things for different reasons but you can't change who you are, where you come from, or your culture. It all depends on whether or not you show those things or hide them to fit into society, especially when you are from a different country because everything is new.

When these 3 Stories Meet...

Since the people in the documentaries are all somewhat different it could go either way. The governor is proper and has to consider everything he does because of what he represents. The two doctors seem like normal people, though one is loud and the other is more reserved. So I think that the two doctors and the governor would get along great. Lela Lee, on the other hand, would not get along with the governor so well because she does not care what people think of her and her work. The doctor that is more of a class clown may be able to get along with her strong personality, the reserved doctor may not. They all would not be able to give a definative answer as to how asians should act in the world either. The governor does not flaunt his culture, but he shows who he is. He has to assimilate somewhat to get where he got. The doctors never really got comfortable living in America, they still have their culture, one more than the other. But all in all, they did try to comform to the ways of Americans at first. Lela Lee flaunts her culture and who she is and you can see that because that's what she built her work off of. So it really does depend on the personality of the person.

Dialogue Between Ni Kan and Jin

Jin: Is your name Ni Kan?

Ni Kan: Yes, why? Who are you?

Jin: My name is Jin. Is that your mother over there?

Ni Kan: Yes, why?

Jin: She told me and my mother that you are a fantastic piano player, I was told to talk to you while they finish their conversation.

Ni Kan: She did? I'm not a good piano player. She just likes to brag I guess.

Jin: Oh, did you just move here?

Ni Kan: No, did you?

Jin: Yes. I don't like school here.

Ni Kan: Why not?

Jin: Because they make fun of me and the teachers can't even get my name right.

Ni Kan: Oh, well my mom pushes me to do things I don't want to.

Jin: Like playing the piano?

Ni Kan: Yup, where are you from?

Jin: San Francisco. Where do you live?

Ni Kan: In chinatown. How do they make fun of you at school?

Jin: The teacher thought I was from China, and the other kids thought that I ate dogs.

Ni Kan: Wow, really?

Jin: Yup.

Ni Kan: I think our moms are calling us over.

Jin: Well then, lets go.

First Unit 5 Story Reflection

From this story I learned to not only stand up for yourself, but to also try. I can relate to some of this story because of my background with playing the piano. Although I was not forced, I did this by choice, I was forced to perform. I hated to perform, and still to this day do. My mom would drag me to the performances no matter how many times I said I wouldn't go or cried my eyes out. I would see the disappointment on her face when I would walk out and refuse to play. I would have to listen to the disappointment in my piano teachers voice when I told her I wasn't going to attend the performances. Then I also saw the disappointment on my dad's face when he would leave work to see me and I wouldn't be there. But like the girl in the story my teacher made me hold a tennis ball in my hand so I would play with high wrists. I also know the spine chilling feeling of playing the wrong note and not being able to get back on track, when I did end up performing. I still love to play the piano, but I will never perform.....ever.

Unit 5 EQ's-- My Answers

          My families history hasn't really affected me in any significant way. It definately has not affected me in a bad way. There are some things that can make it difficult to live up to sometimes, but nothing horrible. My life may not impact my families history as much as they might hope, but hopefully, if anything, it will better my families history. My family wants the best for me, even if I don't actually agree with what they think is best. They want me to go to basically just be very, very successful. I want to get through school and get a job of my choice, I don't know what that is yet. They think I should know by now, or at least where I want to go to college, but I don't have those answers yet. My overall goal is to try and surpass their expectations.When these conflict nothing bad happens, its just uncomfortable to go against them if it's something I really want.

In the Time of the Butterflies: Essay #3

Alexis Boni

English Pd. 2

Ms. Miner

12/12/12

                                    In the Time of the Butterflies: Book vs. Movie

            “Viva la Mariposa! Tears came to my eyes. Something big and powerful spread its wings inside me” (Alvarez 238). In the Time of the Butterflies is a novel by Julia Alvarez about the Mirabal sisters who were apart of the underground movement against Trujillo. The novel is a powerful insight into the revolution, but does the movie do it justice? Though the movie gives the viewer a more detailed background of what was happening politically, the book conveys the theme and allows the reader to see the characters develop.

            The movie fails to express the theme as strongly as the book but the movie does possess a strong visual component. After reading the book, the movie seems bland. The novel gives you so many strong points in the theme that are not included in the movie. Also, the movie differs drastically from the book. While the movie does keep the main events from the novel, it skips around a lot. For example, in the movie, when Mate and Minerva are in jail, and Minerva is forced to watch her husband be tortured. This does not happen in the book. In the book, Leandro is forced to watch Maria Teresa be tortured. “Still very weak, but the bleeding has stopped. I can’t bear to tell the story yet. Just this-I’ve either bled a baby or had a period. And no one had to do a thing about it after the SIM got to me” (240). This quote is said by Mate in the novel after she had gotten back from being tortured. From this change in perspective and the excessive amount of skipping around, the movie leaves holes in the theme. When omitting certain events, it weakens the movies ability to communicate the theme to its viewers. Leaving it with what seems like, no direction. The movie is able to keep the viewers attention with a powerful visual component that is not experienced when reading the book. For example, at the end of the movie when the butterflies are taken into the field and are bludgeoned to death. Though it may seem somewhat graphic and heart wrenching to watch three revolutionaries being killed, it gives you an emotional aspect that the book does not. Even though the movie does not do the theme of the book justice, its visual component gives the reader a strong emotional characteristic. The theme of In the Time of the Butterflies is related to the historical events that occurred during the era of the Mirabal sisters.

            Historical context and background is key with this story line. The novel does not give much background information and context from the political stand point, in which the story line revolves around. Throughout the book the reader starts to catch on to what little context is given, but it is not given by any means. “But really, this woman should shut car doors with less violence. Spare an aging women’s nerves. And I’m not the only one, Dede thinks. Any Dominican of a certain generation would have jumped at that gunshot sound” (5). Said by Dede in the book, this is the first historical context given. Whereas, on the other hand, the movie gives plenty of historical background and context. For example, at the beginning and throughout the movie, slide shows are shown with tidbits of information. Another example is how the movie portrays the racial conflicts, like how Trujillo was murdering African Americans to make the population whiter. The novel gives very little context, whereas you could see, the tension and not only how horrific these events were, but to an extent as to how things were back during Trujillo’s dictatorship, in the movie. The process in which the sisters develop during the course of the story being told, like the theme, is also directly related to the historical events.

            The movie won a few battles against the book, but when it comes to character development, this is where the book triumphs and the movie is dreadfully unsuccessful. The character development in the movie is one sided and weak when compared to the book. The movie is solely based on Minerva’s point of view, making the movie very one sided. The book on the other hand, is from all four of the sisters’ perspectives and switches every chapter. So that the reader gets a deeper insight to all of the sisters’ lives, not how they are all centered around Minerva. Being able to see the events from each sister’s point of view gives not only different perspectives, but more depth. As opposed to the movie, the book also shows the changes and growing maturity of the girls. For example, each sister changes, but Mate changes the most due to her growing up. “I don’t know if you realized how advanced I am for my age? I think it’s because I have three older sisters, and so I’ve grown up quick. I knew how to read before I even started school! In fact, Sor Asuncion put me in fourth, though really, I should have been in third with the other tens” (32). From the novel, said by Mate, this displays how young she was at the beginning. But the movie does not portray this; it in fact gives very little information about the girl’s childhood, when it all started. The movie’s character development pales in comparison to the novel’s.

            In conclusion, the movie gives the viewer a more detailed background of what was happening politically and a visual component, the book conveys the theme and allows the reader to see the characters develop. The movie falls short when it comes to theme, but is packed with visual content that is not experienced in the book. The theme is related to the historical events that happened during the Mirabal sister’s era. The historical content and background is much more informative compared to what little is given in the book. The historical events are also directly linked to the changes that happen with the sisters. The movie is one sided because it is from Minerva’s point of view, and because of this, portrays the characters’ development very poorly. Books are always better; most movies are not doing the movies very much justice. In this case with In the Time of the Butterflies, the movie sadly follows suit.