The Little Coochi Snorcher That Could

I chose to do my analysis on the monologue, "The Coochi Snorcher That Could," I chose this monologue because it reminded me a lot of my psych class.  In my class we learned from one of Freud's theories that children's outlook on sexual things come directly from their parent's reactions.  In the monologue that mother reacted harshly when the main character touched her 'coochi snorcher' so from then on out the girl was scared of her vagina.  She was also unfortunate enough to have a few other bad experiences where her mother overreacted so she has a skewed view of her vagina.  The girl in this monologue is extremely naive, "I put Band-Aids over my coochi snorcher to cover the hole, but they fall off in the water," she believes that water will enter her vagina and make her explode.  She wasn't educated about her vagina, her mother seems like the type of woman who believes if you decided not to talk about something it doesn't exist, or that avoidance is the best method.  But as most people know avoidance or ignorance is not bliss, things will happen and things exist whether or not people decide to acknowledge them.  I believe her mother fears that the girl will become overly sexual if her vagina is talked about and that maybe she will go out and do promiscuous things. I also believe the girl is taken advantage of in the future by the older woman because she is naive and was not educated about her sexuality. If the woman was a man then I think everyone would have agreed that she took advantage of the younger girl. But because she was a woman, the line was kind of blurred. The girl didn't know what she was getting herself into so I truly believe she was taken advantage of, and I believe it happened because she wasn't educated and she was so naive about her 'coochi snorcher'.

Vagina Post #2

I think the monologue, 'My Angry Vagina' is extremely powerful.  We were lucky enough to have *enter student's name* read it for us in class, and she was absolutely phenomenal, she made that monologue come to life right before our eyes. This monologue really brought the vagina to life.  It gave the vagina feelings.  It voiced the vaginas and told everyone how it felt.  It questioned why things are the way they are, and told everyone how they should be. I found this monologue to be extremely humorous, the image of a vagina speaking out is just really funny to me. I think Ensler does a good job of using humor to make it less awkward to read the book. Instead of thinking, "oh i'm reading a book about vaginas" I find myself thinking, "oh this paints a really funny picture." Ensler personifies the vagina, she almost makes it a someone instead of just a something.

The Vagina Monologues Question 4

4)Emotion plays a huge role in what Ensler is trying to accomplish. Why is this? How does she use emotions like humor as a strategy? How does she move us from laughter to embarrassment to sadness to other emotional reactions and why do you think she is doing this?


I'm choosing to write my blog on the monologue I Was Twelve. My Mother Slapped Me.  I found this monologue to be humorous, sad, and embarrassing, all at the same time.  Obviously, as a female, I can relate on some level to the emotional and physical pain these women endured.  Getting your period is a right of passage, and many of the women who shared their experiences did not have pleasant ones.  My guess is that most of the women who shared their stories are well into their lives.  I found it funny to read the women's stories. It stunk for them but it made for a good read for others.  At the same time I found the stories a little sad, many of the stories mention women looking down and seeing blood on the floor, to me that's a traumatizing thought. I can not imagine being a young girl/woman and experiencing something so traumatizing, so I felt a bit of remorse for them.  I also felt a great deal of embarrassment for these women. "Eleven years old, wearing white pants. Blood started to come out," what that woman felt has got to be the worst thing in the world. I think the author chooses to go the route of taking us through so many emotional reactions because everyone can find one emotion to relate to.  Everyone may not always relate it back to their first period experience but they can all find life experiences to tie those emotions to.  

New York Day Women

This story struck my interest because Suzette has always believed certain things about her mother, but in this one outing her Suzette's mother kind of changes her whole perspective.  Suzette has this whole image of her mother and in one day it's shattered.  Suzette's mother does nothing wrong, this double life that she may live is by no means a shady one, but it seems to go against a few of the things Suzette grew up believing about her mom.  The last line of the passage really stuck out to me, "Shame is heavier than a hundred bags of salt," to me it sounds like the reason Suzette's mother may not have gone out with her as much as she may have wanted was because her mother did not feel good enough.  Suzette's mother may have felt like an outcast in America, like she did not belong, or may just like she brought Suzette down in the public image, and she did not want to do that to her daughter.  I think that Suzette's mother's "protection"/lack of being there, may have hurt Suzette more than her mother thinks or knows.  I don't think that Suzette's mother fears Suzette shaming herself but just that she will bring shame to Suzette.  Speaking from personal experience, growing up an immigrant or the child of immigrant parents is extremely difficult, as a child you just want to fit in and your parents want what is best for you, and I strongly believe Suzette's mother just wanted Suzette to fit in and that is why she refused to go out in public or to her school meetings.  Now that Suzette sees her mother out in public eating things she shouldn't, or contradicting some of the things she has said in the past I think she may want to question her, but I'm not sure if she will. If she does end up questioning her mother I hope she understands her reasoning for being the way she is.

2nd Response to 19 Varieties of Gazelle

Different Ways to Pray

BY NAOMI SHIHAB NYE

There was the method of kneeling,

a fine method, if you lived in a country

where stones were smooth.

The women dreamed wistfully of bleached courtyards,   

hidden corners where knee fit rock.

Their prayers were weathered rib bones,

small calcium words uttered in sequence,

as if this shedding of syllables could somehow   

fuse them to the sky.

There were the men who had been shepherds so long   

they walked like sheep.

Under the olive trees, they raised their arms—

Hear us! We have pain on earth!

We have so much pain there is no place to store it!

But the olives bobbed peacefully

in fragrant buckets of vinegar and thyme.

At night the men ate heartily, flat bread and white cheese,   

and were happy in spite of the pain,   

because there was also happiness.

Some prized the pilgrimage,

wrapping themselves in new white linen   

to ride buses across miles of vacant sand.   

When they arrived at Mecca   

they would circle the holy places,   

on foot, many times,

they would bend to kiss the earth

and return, their lean faces housing mystery.

While for certain cousins and grandmothers

the pilgrimage occurred daily,   

lugging water from the spring

or balancing the baskets of grapes.

These were the ones present at births,

humming quietly to perspiring mothers.

The ones stitching intricate needlework into children’s dresses,   

forgetting how easily children soil clothes.

There were those who didn’t care about praying.

The young ones. The ones who had been to America.   

They told the old ones, you are wasting your time.

      Time?—The old ones prayed for the young ones.   

They prayed for Allah to mend their brains,

for the twig, the round moon,

to speak suddenly in a commanding tone.

And occasionally there would be one

who did none of this,

the old man Fowzi, for example, Fowzi the fool,   

who beat everyone at dominoes,

insisted he spoke with God as he spoke with goats,   

and was famous for his laugh.

I chose Different Ways to Pray for my second literary analysis.  I chose this poem because I felt like everyone can find a way to relate to one of the stanzas. Each stanza gives the reader an idea of how some people like to worship, or ask God/whoever they believe in to listen.  I think that the poem mostly talks about people in Palestine, but it also makes references to America.  The stanzas do not really follow any pattern in terms of rhyming.  "There were those who didn't care about praying. The young ones. The ones who had been to America." I think this line shows how some people just take for granted what they are given, or where they manage to get in life.  The line after that talks about how the young tell the old that they are wasting their time by praying.  It's almost a slap to the face of the elderly/people still in Palestine.  Going to America is the ultimate dream for many, they spend day and night wishing, hoping, and praying that they can find there way to America. So for the young people to tell the old ones to "stop wasting time praying" it's a huge slap in the face, because praying might be all they have.  "The old ones prayed for the young ones." This line to me represents the differences in culture.  In America praying is not typically a daily routine for many who were born here.  Many Americans only seek God when they are in need.  But in a country like Palestine, children learn from a young age to always seek out Allah. So for the old to pray for the young is kind of like the elderly hoping and praying that their loved ones who find their way to America do not lose everything that they were taught.  

 

first analysis

Two Countries

Skin remembers how long the years grow when skin is not touched, a gray tunnel of singleness, feather lost from the tail of a bird, swirling onto a step, swept away by someone who never saw it was a feather. Skin ate, walked, slept by itself, knew how to raise a see-you-later hand. But skin felt it was never seen, never known as a land on the map, nose like a city, hip like a city, gleaming dome of the mosque and the hundred corridors of cinnamon and rope. Skin had hope, that's what skin does. Heals over the scarred place, makes a road. Love means you breathe in two countries. And skin remembers--silk, spiny grass, deep in the pocket that is skin's secret own. Even now, when skin is not alone, it remembers being alone and thanks something larger that there are travelers, that people go places larger than themselves. Naomi Shihab Nye I chose to do my analysis on the Two Countries poem.  My interpretation of the poem was the skin represents someone's heart.  The poem kind of describes the wear and tear of life on the heart. How someone's experiences leave marks on their hearts, and how it effects their mindsets. "Skin remembers how long the years grow when skin is not touched, a gray tunnel of singleness" Skin remembers how long the years grow, just as someone's heart remembers all of the pain, sorrow, happiness, and joy they have ever experienced. If someone cannot feel then their heart is going to become a black hole of nothing. They will be disjointed fro the world because they will not be able to make connections with anyone. A heart is what makes people human.

"Skin had hope, that's what skin does."
The heart is the holder of every wish and dream someone has. It is the keeper of all secrets and that is what I think this line is saying.  I think this is a very beautiful poem and I truly think that she is relating the skin to the heart.  The heart has wounds that have been scarred over, healed but never forgotten. It is a road map of everyone's journey, something that can always be traced.