In the essay “Tinysex and Gender Trouble”, I thought the changing of roles online during role playing was very interesting. You always hear about people pretending to be someone their not online, but I never really considered it to be a research mechanism to understand the opposite sex. The changing of roles seemed to be done mostly to try to understand what the other gender is thinking.
I also found it quite interesting how they figured out how to tell when a person was lying about their gender. You never really think about the differences in speech between men and women until you have to trying to do the opposing viewpoint on your own. The fact that several characters in this essay were able to play up their role of the opposite sex for over a year was rather interesting.
I also found it interesting that some of the identity changes happened by mistake, and then the person just went with it. For instance, in the beginning when the first person didn’t choose a role of gender at all and was asked if she was an it. This lead her to think about playing as a reverse gender. Some of the other reasonings behind why people chose to virtually cross dress where interesting. It seems that both genders seem to think the other gender has it easier, which I find to be very interesting. Girls feel that men can act however then want,, without having an consequences to their actions; at the same time, men think woman have it easier because they can be more emotional and let out more about their selves and their personality
I really liked how the author of these piece compared virtually cross dressing to “As You Like It”, which is probably one of the most famous cross dressing, gender confused works today. The detail of how confusing the gender roles in “As You Like It” do bring out some very interesting points in virtual gender bending. For instance, in the early days when a man had to play all of the roles on stage, their was so much confusion in the roles that it was hard to keep straight when he was suppose to be a man and when he was suppose to be a woman.
Taking this argument and putting it with the virtual cross dressing is interesting. Why has a person gone too far online with changing their identity sexually and have much of this is actually left online and what part of it begins to evolve into part of the person’s real identity. Eventually, the things a person is pretending and learning to do online as a different gender are going to come out in their everyday life.

The Book of Salt was an interesting new way of reading into identity. I found it particularly interesting that the cook, Binh, was exiled from his home country of Vietnam for being gay, but then ends up finding somewhere to live and work where gay was the norm. Binh was told that being gay was a disease and that it wasn’t excepted. His father was abusive and basically threw Binh out for being gay. The only true identity Binh knew for himself, he was taught was wrong. Then, he replies to this gay couples ad in the paper to be a live in cook.
The couple, Gertrude Stein and Alice Toklas, are happily gay and married. They are also successful and famous. This idea of being show that a previously unaccepted identity is in fact okay is a really interesting turn that we haven’t really looked at yet this year. Being exiled from one’s country should be a punishment, you are being exiled for something you have done very wrong. But then to be accepted by another country for the reason you were exiled from the original country shows how the views of identity can really change.
I think this idea is very important because it shows that no matter what your identity is, or whoever thinks it’s a “bad” or “negative” aspect, there’s always going to be someone else in a similar situation. I think this helps show that one person is never fully alone, with an identity unlike another else’s. I think this is important to see that different cultures expect and accept different things in identity. Not only is Binh being shown a world were being gay is okay, he is put in a situation where the gay couple is actually famous. The Stein’s also often have guests over for tea parties and such, which shows that others are not bothered by the fact they are gay. It is simply a part of who they are. Being gay is not a disease, rather something that a person can’t really help, it’s a part of who they are.
What I really liked about this novel was the different streams of consciousness we see from Binh. We get a look into his past and his memories so we can understand how he has come to be, what helped to form his true identity. Yet we are also seeing a clear picture of what is going on in the present and how he feels about the current situation that he’s in. It becomes incredibly interesting when Binh has come to a point where he has to choose where to go next with his life: whether to go with the Stein’s to American, stay in Paris, or go back to his homeland of Vietnam. Binh’s decision here really helps to show the changes he has undergone throughout the book and how his identity has formed and changed throughout everything he has gone through. His disease of whether to take his life next really shows readers how ideas and identities can be changed throughout a person’s life.

Taking a look at the essay “The Other Question” and the book The Heartsong of Charging Elk, there’s really a lot to see and learn about identity. In “The Other Question”, the idea of the otherness and unconscious are linked with identity. These ideas work very well with this story, because essentially the character has lost most of his ideas of his identity. He is in a new land of Europe where people dress, talk, and function differently they he does. He is a complete outsider. He has trouble trying to get help while in the hospital because he cannot speak the language. The only comfort the character has is dreaming and thinking about his previous life.
The flashing back and forth between memories and present is very interesting in this book. It really helps make an emotional attachment to the character. He knows who he was in his past life, but there’s a void or unconscious period of his life that he cannot recall, (the accidents that put him into the hospital). He really doesn’t know how he came to his present state and doesn’t understand the land that he is in. The character is forced to change his identity to try to communicate and survive.
In the essay, the author discusses a point of unconscious pole of colonial discourse. This is really demonstrating how power and impact are lost to a person when they suffer a trauma such as Charging Elk did. The alienation and fear brought about by the event have a higher bearing over anything else the character knew from his previous life. It is this fear and alienation of his people, language, country and dress, that Charging Elk is forced to at least try to remember and understand where he is. He essentially is forced to assimilate by fear and alienation, which is very interesting.
In what we have talked about so far in class with identity, there was never a character that was placed in such a fearful situation as this one. With what is basically amnesia, the character is really left with no identity and his surroundings do not match anything he recalls or knows in identity. This crisis gives a whole new spin on the importance of identity and what it means to a person, but also the importance of a person being willing and able to change their own identity for survival and to fit in culturally.
This situation is much more unique them the others we have read about previously, but at the same time similarities can still be seen in how the character is left in a space of unknown identity. In other stories, such as Drown and Blu’s Hanging, the characters identities are being forced to change because someone left them alone without help, or notice. The same is true for Charging Elk. He is left alone by all the showmen in the Wild West Show. He knows no one in a new land and is isolated and alienation. Seeing this similarity with other stories brings up the question of whether or not isolation and alienation are key factors to a person being forced to question and change their identity and have to assimilation to new ideas and cultures.

I found Blu’s Hanging to be entertaining, yet very disturbing. This book made me really think about the ways that different people handle death. I found it really hard to relate to a father pretty much abandoning his children after his wife died. He only abuses and screams at them. I would see an event such a death being one to bring a family closer together rather then tear them apart more. But in the middle of the story, when the author explains the father’s actions, it really helped me understand that he may have been suffering more then the children, and that looking at the children only brought him more pain. The children to Poppy were basically the reason his wife was dead. In his eyes, the wife killed herself to save her children. He was much closer to his wide after having become so close to her when they both had Leberacy. I started to have more positive feelings toward Poppy at this point in the novel.
I was also somewhat disturbed on how sexual and animal abuse were used in the story. I found it interesting how some of there beliefs and lessons they learned from their mother played into this. For instance, the first time Blu was sexually attacked was by the neighbor their mother had told them not to ever go by. The first time he disobeyed the rule, he was attacked. This really shows how the mother really protected them, but when she was gone, it was as if her lessons of protection were gone as well.
I found the idea with being able to see spirits with dog tears very interestingly played in the story as well. They discussed how this worked, and then later in the story the children had to slowly bury all these dogs they were trying to take care of and had grown to love. I really enjoyed how the rule of the mother was played throughout the whole story with the dogs between praying for the dogs and using their tears. I found it very sad how they always told the dying or dead dog their mother would help take care of him.
When Ivah is given the chance to go to a better school in Honolulu, I wished she would have received more support not necessarily from her father since he was never around, but from her siblings. I think Blue and Maisie both knew and understood how much Ivah has to give up to take care of them, but they won’t allow her the chance to take care of herself for a change. Blu seemed to not really grow up very much in this book and had a really hard time finally accepting that he was old enough to step into Ivah’s shoes so she could go to school. I was glad that Big Sis and the teacher went so far out of the way to help Ivah, but I think the others needed to be more supporting of her.
I was also somewhat disturbed about the last sexual abuse act in the book by Paulo to Blu. It was exciting that Blu was trying so hard to earn money to go to Honolulu, but at the same time, I think he knew that going to Paulo would only cause problems. I think it was somewhat selfish for him to go there to wash the car when he knew what Paulo had done to others. I think he knew it could jeopardize his sister’s leaving but he did it anyway. Right away when Blu planned on going alone to wash the car, I knew what was going to happen and wished that he would really think about what he was doing.
I didn’t really like how the story ended. I think it could have left on a happier, more complete note besides the home with the father would was out of it and the children would were scared. I would have liked to actually see Ivah going to college or at least getting on the plane to go. Maybe a chapter of what it was like after she was gone. The ending where it stands was very disappointing for me.

Drown by Junet Diaz was rather hard for me to relate to since I’ve never really been in this type of situation. I have never really even been to another country for a visit. I found all of these stories to be somewhat similar in manner. With all of them written in first person, it was somewhat difficult to separate all of the different narrators from one short story to the next. The way this book is written, it almost seems like the stories are all about the author’s life. Not really knowing much about this author, just from reading this novel, I would say Diaz lived a very similar lifestyle.
The one thing I really didn’t like about Drown, was that it seemed like all the stories had about the same identity, or idea with it. All of the characters are immigrants. Most use or sell drugs. All of them have negligent or abusive fathers and they all seem to have come from Dominica. I think I would have liked the novel more if the stories all had very different backgrounds instead of all having a very similar one.
At the same time, with all of the stories having the same type of background and sad story to tell, by the last story, it was a little bit easier to try and fit into the story and understand where the narrator was coming from. This also works as evidence that this story maybe almost like a piece of the author’s identity and that these stories are actually true accounts from Diaz’s life.
Another thing that I really didn’t like about the stories was how the narrator often spoken in a “spanglish” type of dialect which made understanding parts of what he was saying difficult at times. I understand how using Spanish words helps bring out the identity in the character, but it also leaves readers wondering what the English translation for some of the objects and nouns he was referring to where. This was especially bothersome in the first and second stories in the book.
However, I did like the dialect used in boyfriend. At first, the dialect was somewhat comical to me, because it reminds me of people trying to be cool by using homie and homegirl. But after a couple of pages, I really got into this story and realized that this dialect is actually how the characters spoke and it wasn’t just being fake and goofy like the dialect might be used around here. The dialect in this story really helps to identity the characters and bring readers to the time and place of the story.

I found the essay “Black Skins, White Masks” rather interesting. This essay does a good job of showing that people don’t really know who they are, or aren’t willing to accept themselves the way the were made or the way they truly are. This shows that people are willing to change who they are, their values and beliefs to try to fit in with the greater part of the world. “Black Skins, White Masks” can go beyond just a certain type of person and really relate to everyone in the world.
At some point in time, everyone is wearing a mask, hiding who they really are. Whether its trying to impression a new group of friends, trying to get into school, or interviewing for a job or higher position, a person is always claiming or pretending to be something more then they really are.
This wearing of the mask can also be seen not just has hiding from an identity, but showing a new identity by demonstrating what one person hopes to become, or the type of people they are trying to fit into. This piece works very well with identity because it shows how people can and will try to adapt their identity to fit into a new country, culture, or group of people.
“Black Skins, White Masks”, makes a very strong point in the opening of the piece when the author writes that the more a black person assimilates to the French culture, the whiter he becomes and therefore the closer to a human he becomes. This statement really shows how humans have a hard time identifying with people are are different than them and that people on the “outside” of our cultures and beliefs can be like “aliens”. This piece does a good job of showing how different identities can be feared and how people would be willing to give up one identity for another to be accepted rather than having to spend their whole time feeling like an outsider.

Of the pieces we had to read over the last couple of weeks, the two that I felt I most related two were not the ones I was expecting to like. I really enjoyed the two essays, “If You Are What You Eat, Then What Am I?” and “At an Artists Colony”. I really did not think I would enjoy these two very much, but surprisingly enough, they took me back to my childhood and I really feel like I understand exactly what the writers are trying to get to in both of these works.
Firstly, in “If You Are What You Eat, Then What Am I?”, I feel like I totally understand where the author is coming from. In my eyes, the saying never really made sense to me in the first place. If someone eats a bunch of sweets, that doesn’t make them sweet, it makes them overweight and unhealthy. And just because someone eats meat, doesn’t necessarily make them an animal. The author is saying that is often feeling uncomfortable by being different from others in what she eats. At first she seems to what to be like her friends, but then it seems like she is grateful for the food her mom has provided her with and the sacrifices her mother made to make her more Americanized foods.
I am somewhat able to see where the author is coming from wanting to eat what everyone else is eating to fit in. When I was a little kid, and still now, I ate some of the weirdest things because my parents ate them or prepared them for me. I never saw it as “odd” or “weird” to eat something until others around me were eating it, or saying it looks gross. The author of this story goes through the same thing during her elementary school years and at first really wishes to have a hotdog to fit in.
Only she got sick from eating “regular” food it seemed like it somewhat lots its appeal. I especially enjoyed when she was in boarding school in England and couldn’t figure out what was on her plate. In the end, she stuck with the food she had grow up with and grown accustomed to. She even wanted to try and learn how to prepare some of the foods and dishes her mother served for her. I think the ending of this story really does fit well because it shows that even though at first the author wanted to be different, in the end, she was exactly like her mother. I think this just shows the impact parents have on their children, and that children often don’t realize this impact until make later when their parents are of old age or dead. This ending was truly fitting.
The next work I really enjoyed was “At An Artists Colony”. Although I related in a different way to this one, I really do understand exactly the point the author is trying to make and fully believe it to be true. The author in the story often hears people making racist remarks about black people, when she herself is actually black. She doesn’t look black, so people don’t think anything about talking about her ethnic group right in front of her. When the author tells people, “Yeah, I’m black”, they usually don’t seem to know what to say so they tell her she’s not really black.
This story also takes me back to my childhood in something my mom always used to tell me. Although I never recall making racist remarks such as the ones in this story, I have a very hard time keeping my mouth shout about other gossip. My mom and I would be in some public place and I would tell her “so and so did this can you believe it?” or something along those lines. My mom acted like the author of this story by responding with “ You shouldn’t talk about people because you never know who’s neighbor or aunt is sitting right next to you”. This really makes sense and this story backs up this point. People need to take time and think about what they are about to say and wonder if I would be appropriate if that person, or someone in that person’s family should want to hear what you are saying.
Although this story’s focus is mainly on racism and people not considering that people that may not look like the stereotypical fitting for that race, it could still be part of their background. This story really does have a powerful message that goes well beyond that of racism and racist remarks.