Woman warrior post #3

Quote: "I do not give in," she said.  "There is no pain you can inflict that I cannot endure.  You're wrong if you think Im afraid of you.  Your no mystery to me. I've heard you sitting ghosts before, Yes, people have lived to tell about you , You kill babies you cowards. 

 Said my the mother in the middle of pg. 70.

I cannot tell weather the main character is dreaming or not but basically her mom has gotten really full of herself.  She has made herself one of the smartest kids in her medical school class.  She is now kind of known as the town star.  It sounds like the Mom has gotten crazy also.  I don't understand what is going on with the ghosts.  They say that the ghost is eating babies.  I think that anybody who believes in something that eats babies then they are crazy but thats just me.

Question:  If your mom moved to a new country got a good job, and became slightly crazy.  what would you do?

Quote:  professional women have the right to use their maiden name.

I think that the book said that because the the Chinese culture the women is not as honorable as the man.  I think the reason for the maiden name is because whenever a women is a professional at something they should get some privileges and maybe her maiden name is honorable in the chinese culture.

Question:  Is your middle name honorable?

would you use it when you are a professional at something?

Quote #1: "they think we are carrying these sticks for our own fire." Pg 51 paragraph

Significance:  This shows, like Ben said, how people who immigrate to America don't always have an easy life .   The Aunt said this because they were trying to get money from people and the main character wasn't yelling that it was for sale so the people just thought that they were walking with their own wood.  This was very sad because they had to walk back and forth selling wood as their children would beg.

Connection: I cannot really connect with their situation.  I have never really felt the feeling that they were.  I do feel sorry for them though.  It makes me sad that people had to go through situations like that.

If you were put in that sort of situation how would you feel and what would you do?

Quote #2: I looked at their ink drawing of poor people snagging their neighbors flotage with long flood hooks and pushing the girl babies on down the river.

Significance: In the chinese culture the girl is not as important as the boys because the boys, in the asian culture, have a reputation for being smart and for being warriors which is honorable.  This was significant because i would have been very offended if I was a girl and my parents were drawing about me being sent down a river. 

If you saw a picture like that how would you react?

Part 1: From Haven to Home
The purpose of the museum was to learn about Jewish culture and their move to America. I learned a lot of things about a variety of immigrating Jews. They mostly came from Russia, Romania and Austria-Hungary. I also learned a lot about how they were involved in politics. For example Martin Luther King who understood the struggle of the Jews (important because our president believes in MLK’s thoughts). I learned that the Jews were not allowed to be public with their religion. They sent many letters to high political people like Judges and presidents to let Jews build synagogues and pray.
The U.S was so nice to the Jews that all kinds of other races and religions came to America for freedom and liberty. Since the world was so intolerant of so many people the U.S. was the perfect place for people to express themselves.
I already knew a lot of things that she was talking about because I have studied a lot of Jewish history but we reviewed the different types of Judaism. There is the ultra orthodox movement, which is very strict, and it follows all rules. Than there is orthodox and they are just a tad less religious than ultra orthodox but still very religious. Than there is the reformed movement which where you don’t have to go by all of the rules if you don’t want to. Basically it is an eased up form of Judaism. There are some other forms of Judaism but reformed, ultra and regular orthodox Jews are the main ones.
Something that was weird was that the tour lady didn’t really talk about World War II. All it said was that many Jews and other people boycotted Nazi Germany
Though many Jews held onto their culture some of them wanted to inherit American culture so that they fit in. A form of Jews holding onto religion and culture was that they established a Yiddish community, which is basically slang.
We also learned about Kosher. Kosher is a very important thing in orthodox Jews life. Kosher meat is worth more money because the slaughterers go to school for around seven years to train t o be able to kill an animal without hurting it. Also they need to cut from the second rib of a cow, bull, ox etc. All seafood is against Kosher. Jews also cannot have any blood.
We also learned that Jewish people have a big focus on education and thing that the only way of getting through life is with education. Even to this day a lot of Jews are pushed to do well in school.
Some famous people who are Jewish are Barbra Streisand, Sandy Koufax and Jerry Seinfeld. Also, ironically, Jews are the ones who make most Christmas songs.
We also learned that not all of the Jews were good. There was a Jew who was a very bad man but he founded Las Vegas. Jews also created the Red Cross of America, the sports museum in Balboa park and the courthouse of San Diego was named after the first Jewish judge.
I thought this was a very cool museum and experience. Especially because I am Jewish and i like learning about my origin and history. I plan to take my family to the museum at a later date

Partt 2:
Quote:"America has anything we need; at least one person lives here from from every nation. People immigrant to America because they know it is a land of freedom and a better life. I see America as a land of opportunities."

Response: I chose this quote because before this quote I took America for granted. The quote showed me that I need to be lucky because a lot of people think that America is a great place. It also showed me what people from a different place think about America.

Picture: "India Independence Day"
Description:The photos is taken in a crowded, Indian populated city. There is a focus on a young Indian boy wearing a cultural head ware. The background was blurry and showed a mother and father.

Response: This was cool because unlike some other cultures who wanted to become more American and let go of their culture, these Indians were keeping a grip on their culture.

Essay: My essay was about a man who mostly talked about his courage in coming to America. I never really thought about how it would seem for an immigrant to be moving to a whole different country with a different culture and way of living. He talked about how everything would be different but he would figure out a way to get through it.

Women warrior P #1

Quote 1: 

pg. 9 last paragraph.

"Our mother said we were lucky we didn't have to have our feet bound when we were seven.  Sisters used too sit on their beds and cry together, she said as their mothers or their slaves removed the bandages for a few minutes each night and let the blood gush back into their veins."

This was a good example of different cultures.  The main character (name is not given yet) is an asian girl.  The asian culture is very focused on beauty.  The mother would trim the eyebrows using a line of needles that she would rip out.  This takes place early on in the book and establishes the type of culture that these people are living in.  

I do not have a connection to this kind of treatment.  In my opinion its slightly abuse.  I think its weird that they would hurt themselves just to look a certain way.   I have always thought that binding someone's foot was the worst possible thing but the mother was talking about it like it wasn't scary.

Have you ever been pressured to do something "weird" because of your culture? if yes, what was it? if no, how would you react about that sort of thing?

Quote 2:

pg. 1 paragraph 1

"You must not tell anyone," my mother said,"what I am about to tell you.  In China your father had a sister who killed herself.  She jumped into the family well.  We say that your father has all brothers because it is as if she had never been born."

Another big part of asian culture is to not be a disgrace to the family.  If a child is a "disgrace" to the family than basically shunned upon the community.  For example, Mulan because she was not a boy and went to war she disgraced the family and that is what the father said to Mulan.

I can relate to this because sometimes when one of my siblings or I do something wrong my Dad says we are embarrassing or disgracing to our family.  This is mostly used, in my opinion, because disgrace is a very powerful word.

Why do you think they started the book off like that.

Immigrants

What is your definition of an immigrant?

My definition of an immigrant is a person who comes from another country.

What is your connection to an immigrant?

There are many possible ways that I am connected to immigrants.  My Jewish Ancestors could have come from Europe.  My ancestors were pilgrims on the May Flower.

Do you have friends or relatives who are immigrants?

My nanny is a Mexican immigrant.  She has been taking care of me since i was three months old.  She goes back and forth from Tijuana each weak.

Why do you think immigrants come to the United States?

There are a lot of immigrants coming from Mexico to the United States because the pay, safety and government are better here.

Where do you see the affects on San Diego because of immigration?

The affect on San Diego is that Spanish is now a important language to learn in schools and there are things like Mexican restaurants and the architecture of Balboa Park.  Oh and also the name "San Diego."