AIL Rhetoric Review-Summary, W-10

This is the summary of the literary work I had chosen to cover for our class and I thought it would be interesting to add it to my blog.

Summary of Unnatural and Accidental Women

The play Unnatural and Accidental Women is based on a true story of a young woman who goes on a search to find her missing mother. Along the way, she encounters spirits of 10 native women who had been murdered through alcohol poisoning by the same man. The playwright who has constructed this true story of tragedy into a well-performed play is Marie Clements. Clements has written many plays and books as well as performing in over 50 theatrical productions. She has also spent time in the position of director and producer as she did with Unnatural and Accidental Women. Clements had written this play with the intent to bring awareness to violence against women, along with the discrimination against Natives that is still occurring present day. From this, Clements work was recognized in many festivals including The Women in View Festival. While this play is based on a true story, the dates on the police reports in which the murders had occurred set the arrangement of this work to be chronologically organized.

Clements, Marie. "Marie Clements: Home." 30 Mar 2009 http://www.marieclements.ca/  Most of my information has come from personal experience of reading the script and watching the play on my own.

"Rape of the Land", W-10

"Rape of the Land" was written by Andrea Smith, and this article contained views of how "Mother Earth" and women's bodies overlap with each other and the idea that abuse to either one of these leads to abuse to the another. In my opinion, I think that women (or humans in general) are very connected with the Earth with science as a reference. Our bodies are made of different minerals and vitamins that are also found in the Earth. On top of our bodies evolving from the Earth, we also depend on the earth for various things from transportation to the best ground to build shelter on, to taking vitamins (from Earth) that will keep us healthy. Even having luxurious items such as diamonds, which is created from the Earth, is a necessity to some people. Being dependent on our home planet is all we know, and because of this, more people need to take an initiative to take care of it. This coincides with women because we too are needed for reproduction. Until recently, women have not deserved respect that was deserved...I mean, c'mon, without us the human race may be nonexistent.

I agree with Smith, in the sense that both women and Mother Earth concur with each other. My final thought is that our home (Earth) and our women should be treated as rare, precious beings in order to keep a healthy living environment which goes hand-in-hand with healthy reproduction.

Spring Break, W-9

As the first half of the semester is winding down and the second half will be getting started shortly after this week-long break from school. I sit at home, while most of my friends are somewhere luxurious, wondering why I am so stressed out all the time. Maybe it is because I get involved with too many extra-curricular activities, or maybe because I am very good at procrastinating. I also realize that I complain about a lot of things, even if there is no reason to be complaining. As I am sitting here thinking this I am watching the history channel and it is a program on the evolution of earth and people. There was a short part in there about how parts of the world have gone through different forms of suffering including The Holocaust and Western Civilization. Native Americans (and people involved with the holocaust) went through a lot of pain and suffering when they were forced to leave their original habitat. They had their land, food, houses, religion/beliefs, their everything taken away from them and all that is taught in high school classrooms is how THEY started wars and how THEY are the enemy. Was war between two cultures the Native Indian way of complaining? I would argue no to this question. I feel that Natives were trying to fight for what was originally theirs and what they believe in. Indians had all the reason in the world to complain about their situation, instead they fight for what they believe is right and brush off outsiders. This makes me take a second look on my life and realize how I need to appreciate everything that my parents have done for me, everything I have done, had done, or will do in the future. I am lucky that I didn't have to go through suffering as many people before me have.

Sacred Hoop, W-8

The Sacred Hoop by Paula Gunn Allen is about the vitality of Native American traditions and the role that women of the Ojibwa tribe play in their traditions. In this novel, Allen touches on many issues such as history of gynocracy. I really enjoyed how there was a culture who would put women first and value their existence. Many cultures and religious views throughout history always saw women as second best. The women are portrayed as strong, independents who take on many responsibilities such as cleaning, cooking, fighting, hunting, and most importantly take care of her family. I admire the way in which strong women are portrayed in this novel.

Malea Powell, W-8

During week 8 we had discussed many views on rhetoric. Rhetoric is used in many different forms and we encounter many every day. A popular place in which rhetoric is found is the media. We as consumers have to decipher between different advertisements, speakers, and other companies marketing what they have to offer. Rhetoric is also very popular within literature and one person who we have studied in this class is Malea Powell and her views on the topic.

Powell discusses how literature of minorities, including American Indian literature, is not portrayed enough in their own light to the general public. Only events that American Indians were involved in are well known, rather than learning about specific cultural aspects or other characteristics of native tribes. We also only read about original viewpoints of non-natives and not of native Indians.

Classmate Blogs, W-7

For week 7 we were to write about things we found interesting about our classmate's blogs.

The one thing I found most interesting was that a lot of my classmates, like myself, have never heard of John Trudell. First off, I do not know why I have not heard of this man before; He is one of the most influential activists in our country's history and it is a shame I have not heard of him before. I go back and forth on my next point because I am 1. glad to see that I was not the only one who was not aware of such an important man 2. almost ashamed to no have been aware. I feel this plays a role in the public education system of America. I feel there is a fear of admitting to mistakes colonists have made against Native Americans and by not teaching students accurate information about Indians is a subtle way of hiding a type of guilt.

I noticed a few classmates had written about mascots as well. Being a pretty faithful sports fan, this was a topic I was/am very interested in. I think there is a "line" that divides the positive and negative feelings towards Native American referenced mascots. Personally, I feel that mascots of native descent should be allowed under circumstances such as asking a tribe for their permission and going through some type of class/seminar in order to learn certain traditions, influential people of the tribe, and their culture. Under these terms I feel that a lot of current controversy would/could be eliminated.

Lastly I read a blog that talked about how "we see" Native American Indians. He talked about how imperceptive we become when reading a piece of work Native Americans and how we apply certain standards and expectations to the work as well. We as Northern Americans become racists/prejudice in a sense because of the fictitious ideas that have been placed into our heads, but if we are dealing with an author's piece that is of "white" decent standards and expectations go unmentioned. I agree with my classmate that this occurs numerous times. Not only does this happen with Native American writers, but with any other non-white race. White Americans can be so obtuse...no wonder everyone makes fun of us...

Humor in Literature (Sherman Alexie), W-6

Humor is often used by many people in many different contexts. There are many types of humor such as dry, conundrum, blue humor, etc. and there are many that can strike a smile in just about any type of personality as well. People love to laugh and there is no better way to do this than through jokes or funny stories. Sherman Alexie represents humor at its best in his book The Absolute True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by poking fun at a stage in life that is important to most kids-high school. Although the book deals with serious issues such as Jr. having "water on the brain" and is verbally attacked by other kids on the rez, Alexie still attracts and entertains his readers through humor.

Through humor, people are more likely to open up their feelings and ideas on subjects at hand, which in turn can make them feel more comfortable. Also people become more amenable towards people they are engaged in conversation with, someone they are listening to, or something they may be reading.