Author: kruth91

Tillie Olsen’s ” I Stand Here Ironing, was published in 1961. This story is about a mother and who is telling a doctor about her daughter who struggles with an eating disorder. There are several instances where it is revealed that the daughter struggles with an eating disorder and is in a facility of some sort. Throughout the story there is a slow revelations about the daughters physical and emotional conditions throughout her life. Considering that this story was published in 1961, it appears that there is some taboo and lack of knowledge around eating disorders and body image/self esteem. The mother tries her best to understand her daughter and her daughter’s conditions are but her knowledge was limited and the mother’s tone appears to be very defeated. The skewed narrative does not allow the reader to make a decision about Emily as a person because we only here what her mother has felt and experienced. This is a problem especially when it comes to mental illnesses and food disorders.

The first time were learn about Emily’s condition is with an illusion to illnesses when the mother is mentioning how when she first had chicken pox as a child. It was as if chicken pox ruined Emily for good. The problem about having only the mother as the narrator clouds the point of view of Emily. As an audience we don’t know how she is feelings or what she is thinking. We don’t know her firsthand experience and so I think that this narrative is unfair for us as readers. The lack of understanding we have is apparent. The idea of Emily having an “illness” that early in her life is what creates the ongoing narrative for the mother that there is something “wrong” with Emily.

The next indication that we get of Emily being troubled is from Emily’s mother retelling of how she was an an older child. Emily’s mother believes there were indications in Emily’s infancy as well as childhood. The theme of “being sick” is something that is that the mother points out as an indication of Emily’s current behavior. Emily’s mother gives into the idea that Emily has always been “sick” as long as her mother has remembered. Classifying Emily as sick may be more damaging than we may realize as readers.

Overall, the narration skews our perception as readers. The mother’s narration leads up to believe that Emily is possibly more damaged than not.

The meeting with Patricia Powell and the other seniors was great. It was really great to be able to be brought together as a class yet again, despite what is going on in the world. It was nice to be able to ask Patricia questions about her work and hear from her about her writing process.

I really loved the chapter that Patricia gave us to read. I found both Dorothea and her mother to be very complicated characters. I was really fascinated by the aspect of dreams and the mother-daughter relationship. I was really interested in the notion of the Dorothea’s home community members having dreams about her coming back to the island to do what she is “supposed” to do. We find out that Dorothea’s mother is a healer and that Dorothea should be taking on the line of work. However, because it is only a chapter I was left with many questions.

I also was interested in the notion of dreaming that this chapter and novel has. I observed that there is another level of spiritual practice within Dorothea’s home place that she just cannot find herself connecting to. When I read that multiple people had a dream about Dorothea coming back, I observed that the community is somehow all connected to each other upon another level. This was very intriguing and I can’t wait until the book is published and available to be read.

It was great to meet with the seniors and to have them using technology. I know that for many people, not only older people, learning to navigate technology has been very challenging. Even when we do learn how to navigate it, there will always be technical glitches and what not. I am grateful for the opportunity to connect with everyone and looking forward to next time!

Lenora Carrington’s The Hearing Trumpet, has been very entertaining to read to say the least. Initially I had to look up what a hearing trumpet was before I even began to understand the possible metaphorical meanings that the trumpet could hold. I found that it is the equivalent of today’s hearing aid. It is interesting to think about the possibilities that Mariam has because she now has the ear trumpet. The hearing trumpet provides a fascinating metaphor for the power that Mariam is able to have because of it. 

In the first section of the book, the trumpet is a tool that enables her senses and knowledge that Mariam would have otherwise not have known. One may argue that she uses the trumpet to spy on her family, but really it’s her curiosity that she is trying to fulfill. She also doesn’t have great hearing to begin with, so why not try on her family? The trumpet provides her with the ability to gain knowledge about her future. This otherwise would have not happened unless she had the trumpet. This also happens when she goes to the “institution” and she is overhearing on one of her companions. This is another opportunity to play with her curiosity and avail herself to the “hearing” world.

The hearing trumpet becomes the metaphor of Miriam’s ability to exercise her full abilities as a human being. With age comes the decline in health and self-sufficiency. We see that Miriam is very self-sufficient because she is always in her yard, taking care of her cats, and is able to bathe herself. The point of view of her family becomes alarming because they see her completely different as she sees herself. The trumpet gives her the ability to also see what others are thinking about her as well. 

As Ruth has mentioned in her chapter, I found myself laughing through this as well. Miriam’s point of view is funny and also at times very sassy. I was interested in other parts of the story such as the setting because it is never really clear where Miriam is in the books. The thing that took me about is the language about “Indians” and the agave plants. It made me think of a place such as New Mexico or Arizona. There is much more to be said about Carrington’s humorous writing, but for now it is the trumpet that is an overall symbol that caught my attention.

I found this story to be very interesting and heartwarming despite the cold nature of Auntie Mei. From the Egret, to “Grandpa Paul,” to even Auntie Mei being raised by mythic women, I found this story to have many elements that made it to be interesting. The working facets of this story help to strengthen Auntie Mei’s complexities as a character and her relationships to her clients. The audience becomes the witness who really sees and understands the depths and complexities of Auntie Mei’s character.

The notion of caretaking is a very prevalent theme in the short story, A Sheltered Woman by Yiyun Li. Auntie Mei has been the primary caretaker for many families before she began taking care of Chanel and Baby. Auntie Mei had kept an exact number of families that she had cared for throughout her time as a “gold medal nanny.” The audience quickly learns about how strict, rigid, and emotionally unavailable Auntie Mei was. There is also a notion of generational difference present between Chanel and Auntie Mei as well. Although Auntie Mei was a “gold medal nanny,” she was very much emotionally unavailable to her clients. It wasn’t until Auntie Mei learned about Chanel not wanting to care for her newborn son, that the audience began to see a shift in emotional availability for this family. 

Before Auntie Mei had come to work with this family, she had strict rules for herself to be able to perform her work. Her work consisted of staying a month at a time with different clients, and then she would move on to the next family. Although Auntie Mei is a caretaker, she somehow is able to perform her job without emotional attachment to the families themselves. There is also the example of her never putting the cribs in her room with past clients, because she didn’t find it necessary for the babies to get attached to someone who would only be living there a month. Auntie Mei finds comfort and safety in her rules because she is afraid of expressing her emotions herself. This fear of expressing emotions also derives from the generational gap that she has with most of her clients and their families. The generational gap is very present with Chanel as well. All of the rules that she had laid out for the families becomes the way that she maintains her survival and is able to perform duties.

Auntie Mei began to be more emotionally available after Chanel decided she did not want to breastfeed anymore. Auntie Mei’s job as a caretaker is to also help the mother produce milk. Producing milk is a way for the mother and child to bond. Because Chanel is unable to produce milk, she is unable to perform her motherly duties such as providing sustenance and love for her child. It can be argued that Auntie Mei sees that Chanel cannot love her baby because she is unwilling to breastfeed Baby. This is such a profound moment for Auntie Mei because this is when the audience begins to see the shift in Auntie Mei’s emotional availability. Auntie Mei’s fears about Baby not feeling loved or cared about rise to the surface, and although she is not a mother herself, the caretaker decides to make a choice about whether to step up emotionally for Baby.

Once Auntie Mei decides to step up emotionally, all of the rules that she once had fall to the sideline because she wants to love and care for Baby and Chanel. As mentioned earlier, one of her biggest rules which was to not put the crib in her own room. However, after Chanel decides that she does not want to breastfeed, Auntie Mei decides that it was best for the crib to go in her room. She also had a strict rule which appeared to be to not “love” the babies she had cared for previously. Once Chanel decided that she was not going to breastfeed,  Auntie Mei conceded to herself that she was going to have to provide Baby with “love” as well. Auntie Mei breaks her own rules as a way for her to try to receive some type of love for herself. By picking up the slack with Chanel and Baby, Auntie Mei is able to fulfill her own emotional needs even though she may not be aware of them. Auntie Mei’s complexities arise and although she is doubtful about Chanel she begins to develop an emotional relationship with Chanel as well.

My second visit to the senior center was brief but very sweet. My self and Lila presented on the book and we had presented on the author, criticism, and themes of the book. Overall the research I found was very interesting compared to my own take on the book. The criticism I found made me question whether Fran was or wasn’t a hero. In turn, this question made me think about the women at the Senior Center and how their daily lives could be seen as heroic.

I did get to briefly talk to to my table mates and I met two new people! They were very sweet and before class started we quickly began to discuss the obsession with dying as Fran did. I was really interested to see if they had the same thoughts. Luckily they did not, but what they did share was about the preparation process such as wills, and funeral/cremation costs. What my friends from the senior center were able to share with me was that they have in order their preparation and that took a large amount of stress off of their shoulders. What I was interested in was the fact that some people have to “prepare” to die. This thought is something that has came up for me more and more since going to the Senior Center. I cannot wait to go back!

My visit to the Oakland Senior Center was initially very nerve-wracking. I was really nervous because I had no idea what to expect. I wasn’t sure if I was going to be able to engage with them because of the age difference. My thoughts about older people were that they were kind of crotchety and that they would not want to hang out with us young folks. However, it was clear that the people at my table were excited to be around young people, so my thoughts went all out of the door which was comforting because I wasn’t sure what was going to happen.

 However, my whole thoughts and feelings changed when I began to engage with the people there, I realized it wasn’t so bad. And I ended up actually enjoying myself!

I was paired with people that actually hadn’t read the story, so I was in a place of meeting them where they were at in regards to the readings. We ended up really focusing our time on the Bambara story. What we all focused on was the idea of sexuality, intimacy, and disrespect towards elders.

When I first read the story, I was completely taken aback by the behavior of the children towards their mother just for dancing with Bovanne. Even the language that they used was completely disrespectful towards their mother. This became a hot topic during our discussion because the folks from the center described in detail how so much has changed and how they would never disrespect their mothers in that way. There was much discussion of comparing the way they were raised and how it had changed over time. The folks from the center were also very open to hearing about how we grew up and about our lives. They were very supportive of our education and how we were able to succeed despite how different it is for college students now.

We came to the conclusion that Miss Hazel just wanted some connection and intimacy with Bovanne. We agreed that there was nothing sexual about the way that they interacted. We discussed the notion of dancing and how dancing could be interpreted as something sexual, but in this case it was not sexual. Miss Hazel was simply trying to connect with Bovanne and that connection was interpreted as something negative. The same thing was interpreted as being negative is the exact same thing that is happening at the Senior Center. They just want connections with one another.

My perspective has completely changed when it comes to older people now. I am actually excited about going back and meeting new people. I also learned that there are different levels to being a “senior citizen.” There are “junior senior, medium senior, and senior senior.” I had no idea about that! I was really surprised about they also did not look really “old” either. I was expecting older people that actually look old, but these people didn’t at all. I am very much looking forward to my next visit.