FTKMF: Post 1. A.

In this novel, First They Killed My Father, one main cultural difference that I noticed between our American culture and that of Cambodia was the work schedules and traditions. In America, we get a lunch break during our long work day but in Cambodia like many other nations, it is quite different. “By midday, as temperatures climb to over a hundred degrees, the streets grow quiet again. People rush home to seek relief from the heat, have lunch, take cold showers, and nap before returning to work at 2 p.m.” (1) Because of the lack of air conditioning and heat relief, the city seizes to operate for two whole hours. In America, we operate under the statement that “time is money”, it would be unheard of to have a two hour break. It is also different for our culture in that we do not take that many cold showers. It is also a matter of heat relief and wealth. Another aspect of this quote that I thought was particularly interesting was how the author is implying the lack of air conditioning in the work place, unlike that of their homes. They also many imply worker cruelty and injustice.

FTKMF: Post 1. B.

In the novel, First They Killed My Father by Loung Ung, one particularly interesting difference in relationships was between the mother and the speaker and the father and the speaker. The mother, a stay at home mother, is always perceived as very beautiful with her porcelain skin. “Among her women friends, Ma is admired for her height, slender build, and porcelain white skin.”(2) While her five year old daughter Loung, is not only extremely beautiful, but also extremely troublesome. She like to walk around stomping her feet, just to be different for the more traditional gliding method. “It must be hard for her to have a daughter who does not act like a girl, to be so beautiful and have a daughter like me.”(2) While her father on the other hand, loves her little girl just the way she is. As a leading officer, in the military and a former monk, he appreciates his “diamond-in-the-rough”. “He often says that people just don’t understand how cleverness works in a child and that all these troublesome things I do are actually signs of strength and intelligence.”(4) Loung is always very very fond of her father and always does as she is told when it come to his orders, unlike her mother’s. Loung Ung’s mother is being described and commented as if she is not the most admired family member in her daughter’s eyes. But with a total of nine people in the family it is no wonder why this is true.

Middlesex: #7: A

::VOCAB::

Sultan(159)- a king or sovereign especially of a Muslim state

Pecuniary(159)- consisting of or measured in money

::ANALYSIS::

“Or had guilt begun to infect him, too, so that to distract himself from the thing he’d done he ended up with these Mabels and Lucies and Doloreses?”(159) This is an example of a metaphor because it comes his nude models to that of Mabels and Lucies and Doloreses.

“It’s hard to express the excitement such phrases instilled in a kid like me from the cultural sticks. “(454) Cal here uses a simile to compare his childhood to that of being raised in the “cultural sticks”

“Not long after the Prophet’s disappearance, my grandmother underwent a fairly novel medical procedure.”(165) This is an example of a metaphor because the author uses the term “a fairly novel medical procedure”, to describe getting her body to never have babies ever again.

::QUOTE::

“Why you leave your wife and child? What’s the matter with you?” “My only responsibility is to my people.”(164) I thought that this quote was interesting in that Desdemona is finally standing up for her cousin and how poorly her ex-relative treated her family. It was very shocking when the “Fard” left his daughter and wife to live as a messenger of god.

Middlesex: #7: B

In this section may things happened. First of all, Callie gets a new best friend, “The Object”. Her name is not stated for emotional purposes. She hangs-out with her all summer long and the Object invited her to her summer house for the weekend. There Callie meets, Rex the new boyfriend and is set up with the Object’s brother. The first night they go out into the woods and drink and smoke. Then in turn they both had sex with their preferred partners. Then the next night the Object and Callie do some dirty things, (a.k.a. have sex). Then one ay when they are on the porch, and Callie is fingering her best friend, the Object’s brother finds them. Then him and Callie get a fight which ends in a race and Callie getting struck by a tractor. She is then brought to the hospital where they find that she is both a girl and boy and are recommended to a Dr. Luce in NYC. Once arriving for the next two weeks or so, she goes through a lot of testing where they find that her body is that of mostly a male, but her brain is that of a female. Once seeing this information, Callie runs off and hitchhikes as a boy to the west.

Middlesex: #6: A

::VOCABULARY::

Cassava(150) any of several American plants (genus Manihot, especially M. esculenta) of the spurge family grown in the tropics for their edible tuberous roots which yield a nutritious starch;
Swine(150) any of various stout-bodied short-legged omnivorous artiodactyl mammals (family Suidae) with a thick bristly skin and a long flexible snout; especially : a domesticated one descended from the wild boar


::ANALYSIS::

“The Prophet himself remained veiled to Desdemona. Fard was like a god: present everywhere and visible nowhere.”(150) This is an example of figurative language because it uses a simile. The author uses like to compare Fard to a god.

“The fezzes, the prayer rugs, the crescent moons: it was a little like going home.”(149) This is another example of a simile with the comparasion using like.

“For the residents of Black Bottom it was like traveling to another planet.”(149) This is a final comparation with a simile, all the while showing the similarities between the residents and their customs.


::QUOTE::

“What was happening to Desdemona? Was she, always so receptive to a deep priestly voice, coming under the influence of Fard’s disembodied one? Or was she just, after ten years in the city, finally become a Detroiter, meaning that she saw everything in terms of black and white?” (156) I found it interesting how the racism of the Detroiters was shown in the text. I do not believe that Desdemona is starting to become racist, but you never know in that kind of environment.

Middlesex: #6: B

This last section of Middlesex was very eventful. First of all, the happy household of Lefty and Desdemona is no longer. Both are definitely having some issues getting over their past actions an what guilty has come from that. In this next quote, Desdemona shows how much she wished that they had not gotten married and had children. “I wish I had died in the fire! I swear to you! I wish I had died in Smyrna!”(156) While the environment at home may have not been all that great, Lefty’s career was thriving. He started a new pornography photo collection with his friend. “Plantagenat took the photographs. My grandfather provided the models. The girls weren’t hard to find. They came into the speakeasy every night.”(158) In this section, a new turn in culture is shown through the moods and actions of the characters. “ Bring on the era of the backseat! Automobiles were the new pleasure dome. They turned the common man into sultan of the open road.”(159) In this section, Desdemona also was relieved of her job. After Fard’s criminal convictions, the Temple #1 started to shutdown, which included the silk factory. While on her way out, the curiosity in her character proved strong. She entered the sacred temple enclosure and was met by her cousin’s (dead) husband.

Middlesex: #5: B

Dear Desdemona,

I am very much enjoying hearing about your character in Jeffrey Eugenides’ Middlesex. I am so far at the point when you are in the silk room and you start to hear a mysterious man speaking rudely over his mother and past. I feel bad for how much guilt and dishonesty you and Lefty have to carry around every day. I can not believe that your husband is making you get a job, but maybe you might enjoy that more then idling at home. I thought it was interesting how much went on in the silk room too. “The Silk Room: a description is in order. (So much happened in that fifteen-by-twenty-foot space: God spoke; my grandmother renounced her race; creation was explained; and that’s just for starters.)”(151) I am also very impressed by the way you show that you are not perfect. Unlike your cousin you very much deal with your faults, instead of shoving them into the closet. I do not know how you could have managed to keep Lefty faithful during his bartending days.

--Best wishes for your new job!--

Middlesex: #5: A

::VOCAB::
Camshaft (97) -a shaft to which a cam is fastened or of which a cam forms an integral part
Chassis (97)- the supporting frame of a structure (as an automobile or television)

::ANALYSIS::
“Just like ice, lives crack, too.”(125) This is an example of figurative language because the author uses like to compare the cracking ice to the shattering lives too.

“The Packard, as gracefully as an elephant standing on its front legs, flips up onto its grille.”(125) This is an example of figurative language because it uses as to compare a car’s motions to that of an elephant’s.

“Like a cleaning lady working in Grosse Pointe, she came and went by the back door”(149) This again another example of a simile, with the use of “like” to compare Desdemona’s actions to that of a cleaning lady.

::QUOTE::
“The Silk Room: a description is in order. (So much happened in that fifteen-by-twenty-foot space: God spoke; my grandmother renounced her race; creation was explained; and that’s just for starters.)”(151) I thought this quote was very interesting in that it should what really happened in Desdemona’s silk room. Before in the novel, the only showed the outline of the silk room stories.

Middlesex: #4: A

::VOCAB::

Ingots(96)- a mold in which metal is cast

Substrata(96)- an underlying support : foundation: as a: substance that is a permanent subject of qualities or phenomena

::ANALYSIS::

“It was like a grove of trees, as if the Rouge’s eight main smokestacks had sown seed to the wind, and now ten or twenty or fifty smaller trunks were sprouting up in the infertile soil around the plant.”(95) This is an example of figurative language because it is a simile while comparing the Rouge’s smokestacks to a grove of trees.

“This once-divided city reminds me of myself. My struggle for unification, for Einheit.”(106) This is an example of figurative language because it is a metaphor while comparing the speaker’s inner division to that of Berlin’s past.

“The Packard, as gracefully as an elephant standing on its front legs, flips up onto its grille.” (125) This is an example of figurative language because it is a simile while comparing the Packard’s flips to an elephant standing on its front legs.

::QUOTE::
“The simultaneous Fertilization had occurred in the early morning hours of March 24,1923, in separate, vertical bedrooms, after a night out at the theater.”(107) I found it interesting how to such a length the author would go to specify the process of which her father was conceived. To many this type of accuracy and details would seem unnecessary and awkward. How odd of a conversation would that be for a grandchild to ask her/his grandparent about the night of fertilization for her father?

Middlesex: #4: B

Dear Author,

I am increasingly drawn into your novel, Middlesex. At first I was having a hard time reading and getting into your piece but as I forced myself to read on, I became bound to it. I just finished reading about when Desdemona just gave birth to her child, and the speaker’s father. I thought this following quote was so shocking. “One out of every two thousand babies is born with ambiguous genitalia. In the United State, with a population of two hundred and seventy-five million, that comes to one hundred and thirty-seven thousand intersexuals alive today.” (106) I never though that I just America we had so many people born with ambiguous genitalia, I can not imagine the depression that someone would feel to find out that they were not who they thought they were. Another quote that I drew a liking to was when Lefty finds out that his sister and wife is pregnant. ‘“You liked the pageant?” “It’s not that.” “What is it?” Desdemona looked into her husband’s eyes. But it was Sourmelina who explained it all. “Your wife and I?” she said in plain English. “ We’re both knocked up.”(105) I would think that it would be very odd knowing that not only that you had intercourse with and married your brother, but also that from that intercourse came a child. I hope you later show how the whole situation went down when Desdemona and Lefty’s child found out that his parents were brother and sister.

Thanks much!