Claudette Colvin: An Unheard Shout

         Recently I finished the book Claudette Colvin: Twice Toward Justice by Phillip Hoose. I had been devoid of reading material after I finished the books on my kindle and was wanting for some new stories to sweep me up into their fantastical and implausible world where everything turns right in the end and the characters either always know exactly what to say or turn muteness and societal awkwardness into something worth reading about. I picked up this book thinking that it was the fictional antidote to my boredom but found something entirely different. Claudette Colvin: Twice Toward Justice was about a civil rights figure, a pioneer, who stood up for her rights and spurred the segregated African American community of Montgomery Alabama by refusing to . And all at the age of 16. However, Colvin did not stop there, even after facing a difficult teenage pregnancy with a married man, Colvin struck out at segregation again when she was asked by lawyer Fred Gray to testify in the groundbreaking trial Browder vs. Gayle. I was shocked. It wasn't because I had thought the book to be fictional, but because I had never heard of her before.
              In Social Studies lessons on segregation and the civil rights movement Rosa Parks is the name most referred to, or even little Ruby Bridges, commonly known as the first black child to attend a white school. I have admired these people all my life, but Claudette Colvin was a teenager like myself and broke barriers 9 months before Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat on the bus. I think the reason why Colvin is so unknown today is because she was a teenager. Teenagers were known to be unruly and irrational. Therefore it was easy for white people to ignore as just another rash act by a black teenager rather than a formal protest for her rights and a stand for her people. While this was the reason that many whites ignored it, I also believe that the african american community did not want a teenager at the face of their civil rights movement as teenagers are changeable and not recognized as conscious and educated adults that a court of law might take seriously. As Hoose states in the book, "{Rosa Parks} wasn't a teenager....{or} feisty and emotional as Claudette was rumored to be..." Both of these subtle motivations probably prompted her fading away into the back pages of history books, as well as the fact that she got pregnant right afterwards and, in her words, "they all {the NAACP} turned their backs on me when I got pregnant." Claudette herself felt bitter at the time and remembers thinking, "Hey I did that {refusing to give a seat to a white person on the bus} months ago and everybody dropped me."
                I think that teenagers not being respected as valid members of society and having their actions dismissed as merely hormonal or rebelliousness is a problem in todays society and was a problem even back then. Young people have important things to say and they deserve to be heard. Dismissing someone just because they are young is not only insulting (as Colvin felt), but also damaging to a society that might have benefited from the ideas spoken.  Rosa Parks might have been a better candidate for spurring the Montgomery bus boycott of 1955-6 because she was "widely known as an activist," "respected by both the black professional class and ordinary workers," "light skinned but not white," "and struck almost everyone she met as a contained, pleasant, committed and levelheaded individual," but I believe that Claudette did not deserve her chameleon like status as someone who was not important. I am so glad that this book was written so that the world can know of her heroism and courage, even though she was a teenager.

Power: Poetry by Martin Espada

“Power changes everything.” Says Libba Bray in her book, “The Sweet Far Thing.”  Martin Espada’s poems agree. In Espada’s works, “New Bathroom Policy at English High School,”  “Revolutionary Spanish Lesson,” and “Two Mexicanos Lynched in Santa Cruz California May 3, 1877,” power is a recurring theme. To the subjects of the poems, it is their security, their identity and their morality. As this theme threads though all of the poems, Espada is trying to communicate the effects of power on humans, their relationships with each other, and even with death.

Martin Espada speaks of power and authority in his poem, “New Bathroom Policy at English High School.” The poem first speaks of a group of boys talking openly in Spanish in their school bathroom while, unbeknownst to them, their principal sit in a toilet stall. Just Espada specifying the man’s rank over the students, making who has the authority clear, establishes a power dynamic. When the principal hears his name, he doesn’t understand the context of it, but it vexes him, as Espada says, “it constipates him.” The reason the principal feels so antagonized by this is that the boys have taken away his power over them. “The only word he recognizes/is his own name,” and therefore he has lost the power to understand what they are saying or what they think of him. He is afraid of this and the loss of power makes it so he feels repressed and insecure in his own authority. To “relax” he must regain his control and power by flexing the muscles of his authority, deciding to “ban Spanish/in the bathrooms.” Only now can he relax. Authority is a necessity in this poem.

            Power features heavily again in Martin Espada’s, “Revolutionary Spanish Lesson.” The poem describes the subject’s reaction to when someone mispronounces his name. He wants to “comb his beard to a point,” and “push his beret at an angle.” In other words look like the Spanish revolutionary icon from Cuba, Che Guevara. He wants to hijack a busload of Midwestern republican tourist and force them to chant in Spanish. Although some may see this as a gross overreaction, it is a power trip.  When people mispronounce your name, especially one evocative of your heritage and culture (as I believe the subject’s is because of the title of the poem, “Revolutionary Spanish Lesson.”) it is taking away the power you have over your identity and the power your culture holds. The subject in this poem wants to re-establish the authority he has over who he is and the power his culture holds in the world by forcing those stereotyped as most ignorant (Midwestern republicans) to acknowledge his culture and identity. He takes away their power.

            “Two Mexicanos Lynched in Santa Cruz California May 3, 1877” describes exactly what it is titled- a terrible slaughter set back when such atrocities were common. When even jail held no power over the self proclaimed vigilantes- a group of citizens who take the law into their own hands. In the 1800s, still a time of brutal racism, vigilantes had the ultimate power, as Espada shows. Each stanza starts with “more than,” leading the reader to understand that “more than” all of the horrible details of the deaths of the Mexicanos, was what happens in the last stanza (the only one that does not begin with “more than.”). The last stanza describes how what “remain”s are the murderers, who crowd “into the photograph” they have taken to commemorate the event. The vigilantes have clearly held the power throughout the poem, but now they take away even the power that death has. They refuse to acknowledge the atrocity by taking the photograph, making the deaths secondary to the camaraderie. Power is solely theirs in Martin Espada’s poem.

            Throughout Espada’s “New Bathroom Policy at English High School,”  “Revolutionary Spanish Lesson,” and “Two Mexicanos Lynched in Santa Cruz California May 3, 1877,” power is the necessity of life and all are susceptible to its lures. Through powerful verse, Espada shows us how most people crave power and go to ends such as killing to have it. But why do humans desire to feel powerful? To control? Maybe it is because we are afraid of what happens if do not have the power, if other people make decisions for us. This is probably why there are dictators or gangs, people like the principal at “New English High School,” willing to do whatever it takes to have power in their hands.

Is it Logical to Love?

I was listening to "Winter Song" by Sara Boreallis and Ingrid Michealson today. It was a lovely day and I had just finished a new book, House Rules by Jody Picoult. House Rules is a book about a 18 year old boy who is charged with the murder of his social skills teacher. Now, you may as well ask, why would an 18 year old boy need a social skills tutor? The answer is that Jacob (the boy) has been diagnosed with Asbergers syndrome. Aspergers is "an autism spectrum disorder (ASD) that is characterized by significant difficulties in social interaction, alongside restricted and repetitive patterns of behavior and interests" according to Wikipedia. Aspergers, in terms of how it is presented in the book, makes Jacob take everything literally. For example, if you told Jacob that his story tore your heart up, he would respond by explaining to you that one cannot tear one's heart into pieces; because you would need a knife and you did not have one. In addition and due to this, Jacob cannot read social cues. For example, Jacob could talk for about 10 minutes about dinosaurs and if you said "oh look at the time!" in an attempt to escape the conversation, he would plough right on. He would not see that he is boring you. All of these factors add up to make him seem more than a bit odd to other people.

 Perhaps Jacob's most obvious symptoms of Asbergers, however, is the fact that he does not show any other emotion that anger when he does not get what he wants. When Jacob is informed that his tutor has died, Jacob says "Okay." Nothing more, nothing to show how if he missed her, the closest friend he had. When asked why he did not show any emotion, Jacob replies that his showing of emotions would not help anybody and that he knew he was sad so what was the point of showing it? Everyone in the book thinks that Jacob is a freak because he doesn't show emotion, however, I think that Jacob just has an overactive sense of logic. This means that he doesn't show emotion because the logic in his head tells us that there is no point. For most of us, our logic is nullified by grief and we cry and express our emotions. However, Jacob's body tells him this would be a waste of energy and would not benefit anybody. However, what his machine of a body has overlooked is that his showing of grief would have comforted his mother and brother. It would have showed them that he was a human being, something that they are always hoping for.

I compared this to Winter Song, the music I was listening to as I finished the book. In Winter Song a line says, "They say that things just cannot grow, beneath the winter snow. Or so I have been told." I took this to mean that in the coldness and hardness of winter, emotions such as love cannot thrive. I think that Jacob's Aspergers is like snow. I think that this is because he is so seemingly unfeeling- cold to love, and logical. His overactive sense of  logic, due to his Aspergers only cares about facts and measurements. Love does not play into logic, because it cannot be measured exactly and it seems he cannot feel it.  Most evidence points to the line being true, that love cannot exist under Jacob's disease, yet this is only how it seems on the outside. However, "beneath the winter snow," Jacob obviously cared about Jess, his tutor. He logically figured out that, due to his responses to Jess, he loved Jess. However, his logical body does not allow him to acknowledge this love, and therefor the grief that goes along with it. Pe

Logic vs. Love. Its such an interesting comparison. Much of the time it seems such opposites cannot be allowed to coexist in the spectrum of humanity. There are many books that deal with logic versus love, without the Aspergers element. However, in most of these books, the main character gets over his/her logical side and learns to love. What makes House Rules different is, the Aspergers element, the thing that makes it impossible for him to get over himself and love. I feel sorry for Jacob, love is a great thing. His snowy disease sounds like so much of a burden, and doesn't realize what he's missing. However, spring comes after winter. I hope that someday even though it is probably not possible, Jacob's snow will melt and spring will come.

Emma

            I have recently begun reading the book, "Emma" by the celebrated and renowned author Jane Austen. Austen has written many classic novels such as "Sense and Sensibility,""Persuasion" and "Mansfeild Park," to name those most widely known. Reading Jane Austen, or most authors from the time period of the 18th and 19th centuries is a unique experience, so different from the one when I read more recently written novels. Because the book comes from a completely different time period, the vocabulary and terms used in the book such as, "profligate" or "shew" as well as food such as gruel and dances like the quadrille that we are not normally familiar with today. Not only does this effect the reading experience because you have to extrapolate the true meaning from phrases you are unaccustomed to, it transports you into a different time where such words were used and truly absorbs you into the book. Another reason Austen's books are an experience is the rich descriptionary tactics that have been lost, in my opinion, in our modern literature. There are few books today in which you will find pages upon pages of description on a building or landscape or even a person's countenance. The same is true for the long paragraphs of dialogue between characters, our modern language and customs have conditioned us to speak in choppier, shorter turns without the flowery overtures found in Jane Austen's world, although in each there is found vehement expression and colorful languages and slangs of the time. This brings me to another point, how similar and different Jane Austen and our worlds are. Specifically in terms of women's place in society.
               Women as portrayed in Austen's works seem to have a great deal of power in terms of their own affairs and often the affairs of their superiors. Now, I have only read "Pride and Prejudice" and "Emma" out of her books, but both depict father figures or elders of authority who bow to the will and respect the minds of their daughters, albeit sometimes condescendingly. This is evidenced in Mr. Woodhouse (Emma's father)'s description of his daughter, "Emma never thinks of herself, if she can do good to others" and describes her intelligence and talents to anyone who will listen. He admonishes himself to a great degree and seems to put Emma on a pedestal, wiser and cleverer than himself and fit to run his estate and take care of herself all in one. This seemed not to fit with what we know of how past societies thought of women- beneath them and only useful in terms of marriage. This is because of the families' social standing. Richer women often had more say and power than poor women, particularly if the family in question did not have a son. Such is evidenced in the fact that Emma's father did not make her get married, even though she was extremely eligible at age 21, and pretty. Poorer families had to marry their daughters in order to gain better standing in society and often used their female offspring purely as a way to get richer, disregarding their feelings and wishes. In wealthier families the need to get married for money is not as great, and therefor women are given more power and leeway over choice. If Austen had written about less endowed families, then the powerlessness over marriage would have surfaced.
                The ideas of marriage in the teens and early twenties and such powerlessness seems silly today. After all, in this day and age we think women are  equal to men in all ways of the world- but are they? Women still get payed less than men at the same jobs and gender discrimination reigns world wide. I observe this kind of misogamy in school and on television. It seems as though women are "supposed" to be stay at home moms, and if they're not, they're criticized and characterized as being distant and cold towards their children. We have yet to elect a female president and it seems like the only position in the white house America will allow women to hold is the office of "first lady." Further proving my point is the term "slut." When guys have a lot of sex they are "players" and celebrated for their interactions. If a woman has a lot of sex she is labeled a "slut" or a "whore." It seems to me that although society has made some progress in terms of how women are thought of in society, we haven't matured as much from the times of "Emma." In fact, Emma seems to be respect and held in higher esteem than many women today.

Why Did They Get Into Heaven?

            I just finished reading "A Proud Taste For Scarlett and Miniver" by E.L Koningsburg. The book opens on a cloud in Heaven. Right away it becomes a little controversial. Heaven is a hotly debated topic: does it exist? is there a hell? how do you get there? is it eternal? is it nice? Koningsburg explains that this heaven is known as "Up." No one gets "up" right away, most have to spend some time in hell, to atone for any sins they made on Earth. Although Koningsburg does not go into what happens in Hell, she reveals that you cannot watch what is going on on Earth, while you can in Heaven.
               The people sitting on the cloud in Heaven are Empress Matilda, The Honorable Knight Sir William, Abbot Suger  and last, but certainly not least, Queen Eleanor of Aquitane. They are waiting for the arrival of Eleanor's husband, King Henry of England. Henry is to be judged on whether he can leave Hell and move "Up." Eleanor and Henry died not long apart, but Henry has sent more time in Hell, atoning for his sins. While they wait, the company discusses how Eleanor came to meet Henry, starting with Abbot Suger. Suger recalls the meeting of Eleanor and her first husband Louis. He tells of Louis' transition from a nice and ambitious young man to a pious and disillusioned king. He explains how Eleanor met Louis and married him. Empress Matilda (Louis' mother) takes over and explained Eleanor's happier and prosperous time with Henry, but then how he got too controlling and had an affair. She also recalls the beginning of Eleanor's orchestrated rebellion of her sons against him, after he took her lands. Sir william finishes up the story by telling of the death of Eleanor's sons, how Eleanor was locked up, and how she finally won. The book finishes with Henry arriving up, with Eleanor's sons.
                There is a saying, "Behind every great man there is a great woman." This is proven true in the book "A Proud Taste for Scarlett and Miniver." The dynamic between Eleanor and her husbands is reflected in how her husband rules his kingdom. Eleanor had a lot of power as queen of France and then England. Although her husbands had advisors, it was she who held the power to their happiness, and could influence him at his most vulnerable moments. Her power is evidenced several times in the book. When the first Louis, "Louis the fat" dies, Eleanor leaps into action making sure that she and Louis are known as King and Queen, which results in many people paying homage and helping assert their dominance. Eleanor is behind all of Louis's decisions, she tells him that he needs more lands and he goes out and fights wars to conquer them. As Abbot Suger says, "He listens to her instead of his conscience."
                This trend continues with her second husband, King Henry. When they are married, they are extremely happy and the land reflects that. Henry takes questions from the people and endeavors to please them, as he endeavors to please Eleanor. They travel around together and assess each land and England prospers enormously. However, when Henry and Eleanor fall out England plunges into wars and the people are not happy with the endless shedding of blood. When Eleanor exacts revenge onto her husband for having an affair, she takes Aquitane and holds it ransom. It is not right for monarchs to use their lands and people as pawns in their personal quarrels, in my opinion, but it also proves how much power Eleanor has over her husband. She knows he will stop at nothing to get the land back.
              They are all selfish, powerful and scheming but they are England so the land must obey them. Maybe the saying should go, "Behind every war ravaging man there is a selfish woman." I really don't understand why they are allowed in Heaven.

Then and Now

                I just finished racing the book "The Diviners" by Libba Bray. Bray is one of my favorite authors as she conquers the world of historical fiction with a surprisingly current and relevant to readers today. This is what makes historical fiction great, the idea of an almost fantastical time where things weren't quite as they are today but still relatable. From reading last books from Bray and other Historical Fiction authors such as the wonderful authors of the American Girl books that I thoroughly perused as ages 7-10, I know that problems of today often correlate closely with the problems of those in years past. For example, although Samantha wanted a china doll in the year 1907 and I wanted a Tamagachi in the year 2009, we still had to beg our respective elders for the toys and be "good" in order to earn them from our parents. The same goes for books as I grew older. Although Grace was trying to earn money for new shoes in victorian london and I was trying to earn money for eating lunch out in 21st century new york, we both felt the unfairness of job options available to a 12 year old and the little monetary gain that could be earned.

                  This brings us to my current book, "The Diviners." The Diviners takes place in the "roaring '20s" in New YOrk. A girl named Evie arrivers from small town Alabama ready to take in the wonders and pleasures of New York. A boy named Memphis works for the Boss of Harlem, collecting illegal lottery tickets while taking care of his younger brother Isiah. A chorus girl named Theta is hoping to forget her past with the help of closeted Henry, her "younger brother." And a giant of a man named Jericho is used to hiding his secrets, until he meets a girl who could untie them all. And all across the city murders are occurring. Murdeurs that correlate with a secret extremest religion, founded long ago who sought to bring hell and the anti-christ, the "beast" onto Earth. The murders are gruesome, arranged like texts in the book of Revelations to the tune sung creepily by the murderer.

"Naughty John, Naughty John, Does his work with an apron on, Cuts your throat and takes your bones, sells 'em off for a coupla stones."




And it is only the aforementioned people, with their extraordinary powers such as seeing into the future or becoming invisible can help.

                 

           Funnily enough I likened this experience to High School, or what is going to be the high  school experience for me. New York City is huge, scary and inviting all rolled up into one irresistible package. Like the characters in the book, I am drawn to the opportunities and sights the city affords, things I will see in my journeys to schools in Manhattan and the like. The book starts off not telling us how these characters are related to each other, just that they are all special and hoping to make it in New York. I think that this relates to the many students across New York City, all different and all hoping to go to the school they want, to become someone special and more than they already are. No matter what time we find characters in, they all want to succeed and hope NYC will help them get there. The gifts that each character has in the books also relate to the students of my year. We are all talented in some way, be it artistically or academically or even something that can not be measured. We all have something about us that makes us unique.

                Its true, times have changed. We now ride in subway cars as opposed to trolleys on the street. But one thing is for certain, people, at least not on the surface, have changed very little

Affirming Existence

                  The title alone was enough to draw me in. Not to mention the bright turquoise cover, gold embellishments, '80s writing and the drawing of a kick ass Indian girl on the front cover. But the title and sub-title really got me, because it spoke to a lot of stuff I'm thinking about. "Tina's Mouth, An Existential Comic Diary." Wow. To fully understand the title, I looked "existential" up online. It turns out that existential means "of, relating to, or affirming existence" (merriamwebster.com). Or, as a character in the book, Mr.Moosewood so aptly puts it, "find{ing} true and authentic meaning and purpose to your life."As I mentioned, I've been thinking about a lot of questions referring to the idea of existing.  For example, why am I here? What is my place in this world? How can I do something that makes my existence worthwhile? This book really helped me delve deeper into my questions. I'm not saying it answered them, it didn't. But it did help define my thoughts a little more, and introduced me to new ways at looking at the world through existentialist glasses (existentialist, a person who thinks about existential things). 

             Tina's Mouth takes place in sunny California. Tina is 15 and the youngest in a family of five very different people. Her parents were a product of an arranged marriage and she has a square older brother and an artsy hippie older sister. Tina has a best friend named Alex (she and Alex form the "clique of two" as Tina calls it) and a crush on a boy named Neil. However, Alex drops her for a "self-obsessed clotheshorse" named Claudia and a new boyfriend. After moping around for a while, Tina is inspired by her existentialism teacher Mr.Moosewood to get more involved. For a while, it works. Tina gets the lead in the school play- even though she has to get fake- raped by the disgusting Ted Fresh- and makes friends with Hollis McAdams, a popular alternative deep-thinker. Tina also gets to go on a date with Neil and they start semi-going out. However, Neil ends up hooking up with Hollis at a party and Tina is alone again. Prompting she and Alex make up. However nothing will ever be quite as it was again. Throughout the book, we see Tina's assorted family members and how she solves their weird problems, and them hers.

              As someone who has been thinking very existentially, I wonder what Tina got out of her experiences. The end of the book shows Tina in almost the same position as in the beginning of the book. The last words we read are, "this is only the beginning." So, has Tina gotten anything out of her existentialism class? I think that the author formatted the pages in the beginning and end of the book for a reason. It is so that we can see that Tina has come in a full circle. What I mean by a full circle is that she  started out happy, then went through a lot of complicated issues and events. Now Tina is back at the beginning, she has moved through all of her problems and is ready to keep going on with her life. But, the picture is not exactly the same, because that picture is not the last page. The very last page shows an envelope. Tina is mailing her diary to Mr. Moosewood. I think this symbolizes her closure, and how she does not need the diary any more to express herself, she can do it in her life. 

               This is one of the changes that Tina went through. At the beginning of the book, and through to the end, Tina writes down everything about her life and her thoughts about her life in her existential diary. She talks to the diary when she has no friends, or when she feels like she has nothing to do or participate in. I think that, by sending the diary off, Tina is realizing that she needs to go out in the world and be a participant. Tina has been writing all about her existential thoughts, but the truth is, how will you know the purpose to your life if you are not leading a full life? Although Tina does not know the purpose to her existence, she finds that she needs to be in the world if she is going to figure out anything at all. Mr.Moosewood says, "you have to figure out how to be." and how can you figure out how to be if you are not out there and being yourself?This is a really huge change in Tina, and I think it is better that she realizes this.