#503words

[modern-fiction-1-blog]

Satire Portrayed Through Belles Lettres

Satire is a technique that writers use to expose people that are critical, foolish, and have n problem with corrupting their society if that is what it came down to. Social commentary is commonly used in an absurd manner in order to draw attention to the absurd actions in which people actually do. It does a great job showing you the potential outcomes for when you act on something without thinking it all the way through first. Belles Lettres is satirical because it shows women putting down other women. This idea is not only ironic, but very degrading when basing it off of their professionalism. Knowing that this work is a satire helps in terms of interpreting the insanity of the text. The author is satirizing the private school environment as well as black people fighting for a top position in it. Satire also helps to interpret this text by using material things to earn an entitlement and honoring the mentality of being “the one”. The two women arguing is very toxic and corrupts the mentalities of each other’s perception of being top notch. 

We as humans engage with the women because people do talk about other people and sometimes one says things with intentions of putting the other down just so that they have more self-satisfaction. The two women disliked each other so much because they never had one good conversation to strengthen their relationship; only discouraging comments were made to weaken their relationship. I think that satire is a good way to address the issues of this story, but in the end it all comes down to two women who are living through their children and creating a petty environment for them. The intended audience are all people that feel alienated to different environments or situations. Fiction is the opportunity to enter a world where you do not belong, and it alienates you to feel no connection with the works. When I have to work for an understanding or relation to a text, my incentive is to give it time and understand it because new ideas could be beneficial to my knowledge in the future. 

Texts like Belles Lettres have a moral component that comes with it, and this is a topic for people with opposing thoughts of it. People should be open minded when learning about the experience of others and how they position themselves in the world. If you are able to navigate different types of people in their environment, you gain the understanding of some people better. Contact zones are good places to share differences and interpretations among others in the room. Pushing through and trying to understand the perspectives of others is culture shocking because if you are not in the same place as the reader you will be shocked by what is happening to them. People should embrace different situations that are unfamiliar to their life at a current time because it could broaden their horizons and allow them to step out of their comfort zone.

[savingfishfromdrowning-blog]

Comparison

The book Saving Fish from Drowning takes a group of tourists from China to Burma, present day Myanmar.  However, one of these “tourists”, Wendy, is actually a journalist.  Her goal on this trip is to talk with the natives to see if their human rights; life, liberty, and property, are being deprived from them.  As she took notes and journaled about her days.  Throughout this book, you see the real government treatment of the people of Myanmar. They worked from dawn til dusk, or around twelve hours, and received two hundred or three hundred of their currency in return.  Ninety percent of this country is Buddhist, the other ten percent are majority Muslim. The Muslim families in this region have been attacked with impunity, stripped of the vote, and driven from their homes, according to the Economist on June thirteenth, 2015.  The Muslims in this country are cruelly mistreated.

The book 1984 by George Orwell talks about society in which too much power is given to the government.  “ Orwell indirectly proposes that power given to the government will ultimately become corrupt and they will attempt to force all to conform to their one set standard. He also sets forth the idea that the corrupted government will attempt to destroy any and all mental and physical opposition to their beliefs, thus eliminating any opportunity for achieving a utopian society” (Government Oppression).  This power that Orwell mentions can be seen in Myanmar today. The government has too much power, so much, in fact, they can take away the basic human rights of their citizens, without an uprising.  The main reason these Muslims are being mistreated is because the government is Buddhist,  the two religions are rivals in this country. Getting rid of the Muslims means that more of the population will be Buddhist, therefore, agree with the government. According to Orwell’s definition of an oppressive government, Myanmar fits the bill.

Amy Tan saw this and decided she would describe this in her book as well.  She took a different approach than Orwell.  Orwell fought the ideologies of corrupt governments head on in his writings whereas Tan speaks of this injustice on a more personal level.  She has her characters interact with people of oppressive governments.  The citizens of these countries do not complain in her book to make the reader pay attention to this, but instead, Tan had her American characters express their standard of living to that of the natives.   Orwell had his characters live under an oppressive regime.  Here, his characters revolt against their oppressor.  These authors get their message across efficiently.  Tan’s approach is a more common occurrence.  In today’s world, the reasons those under these governments are not revolting include a lack of willingness or ability.  The people of these regimes are happy with their lives.  We can observe this in Tan’s characters’ interactions with the natives. This event leads to other governments and international organizations having to get involved to fight for those who can not.

[savingfishfromdrowning-blog]

Quote Analysis 1

“We all need to survive, we all need to remember”

There are two ways of looking at this quote.  The first is where the statements are two different statements. We all need to survive meaning we all need to avoid dangers, eat, and find shelter.  We all need to remember meaning we all need to remember so we know our experiences; good or bad they make us who we are so they must be know.  Then there’s the second way. Now the terms are codependent: In order to survive we must remember, and in order to remember we must survive.  Memory is survival.  Only one’s memories can truly express the road they traveled in order to get to where they are.  The hardships they faced and the good memories they created become their survival.  The lessons learned from a scraped knee, an accidental adventure, or a broken heart influence their decisions. Memories make us who we are.  Every person survives in their own way, and who you are is the most influential part of that.

“We miss so much of life while we are part of it”

Go and smell the roses.  This quote is synonymised to the expression you are told by your mother when you’ve been sitting on the couch all day.  When living life, one is constantly thinking about what is happening next.  Honestly, even when one sleeps, one has dreams about what their subconscious is either wanting, expecting, or fearing will happen. Life is a whirlwind of what-ifs.  As humans, our brains try to calculate out the what-ifs into predictions that one can easily handle or train themselves to handle. However, in death, there are no questions, no predictions, and no memories.  It is over, no matter where one believes an individual goes or does not go, that person’s time here is over. In many cases, in fact presumably most, they have not seen all the amazing things we have to offer in this world.  For example, one might not have scuba dived to the lowest depth possible, or climbed to the highest peak. They did not get the chance to see every flower, or hear a whale song. One might not have hugged their best friend the last time they saw them. These are all things one might live to regret. When was the last time you watched the sunset? Not just from your car window or the peak you get when you glance out the kitchen window for a moment but really looked?  Every day there is a sunset and a sunrise.  We have an opportunity every day to experience something we did not yesterday.  When one is dead, if it is anything like how Tan describes it, the world is finally your oyster.  Then can you explore and see every nook and cranny you desire. You can look at items you would have just passed by during life because there was too much life ahead of you to look around.