Position Paper

Seems like identifying the Position paper proved to be much easier than I thought. The crunch now however is putting the nose to the grindstone and belting out the actual position paper. I thought of working on the Doll's house. The whole situation was a game. Everyone was playing a game. Torvald it seemed constantly pretends that Nora is a child while Nora on the other hand plays along while manipulating her husband into doing things her way. It was a truly childish relationship and it is the awakening into truth that drives Nora out of the home. However I remember thinking when I first started teaching the Literature Component for form 1 and came across Ali Majod's strange story..."This is a tale for teachers!" It seemed to me that while the whole story was about a boy and his pencil...or so we were led to believe. In actuality I felt the central character in the piece, the focus of the whole story was Mr. Jamal. If Mr. Jamal had noticed Zahid in the begining...if, if, if... and so it goes on. Thus I suppose this would be a much better paper to write about...And so it begins.

langston hughes and others

The whole day has been about poetry! Hillary Tham - she wasn't so bad...but Erica Jong well she's another kettle of fish. She reminds me of Pantoun for Chinese Women by Shirley Geok-lin Lim. Though Shirley was more demure perhaps, Dina Zaman's The Fat Woman was more vulgar but about the same theme I feel. Well anyway they have much to agitate about, seeing that it was not until the 20th Century that women were given some sort of freedom. The picture here perhaps speaks more about what women have achieved in this century. A normal scene you would say...except those are women not men. Kudos!
Langston on the other hand...is well Langston. A little snide, very sarcastic sardonic even, especially in the Cross. Well he speaks well, as the youngsters today will say "been there, done that" seeing as I'm a Serani, I know what he is talking about. Yes, we don't have the kind of stigma that he talks about but it still stings to be called a "chap cheng Kia" or Scion of ten fathers.

Poetry

Having read Langston Hughes I'm tempted to think he was talking about other minorities. Not just American Negroes in his time. Looking at A Dream Repressed I am lead to reflect on the Indian community that lives around my school. The word Ghetto would be most aptly describe the surrounding area. There are very clearly delineated areas for Malay and Indian people. There are the gangs that "protect" their kind and "turf" It really smacks of all the stories of Inner City ghettos in the U.S. only it's here in Malaysia. They are truly like an over ripe raisin festering and rotting in the sun giving off a sickly sweet smell. The smell of decay that cloys the senses and makes you sick. There are small explosions, they are much like Hughes explosions, fights break out, noses are bent, pride is hurt...then the authorities clamp down. Where is the dream? Where is the good life?! they ask...