The immigrant, the outsider, and the hero

In their own ways, each character in the novel is an immigrant, an outsider and a hero.  Pick one character and discuss how they embody each of these characteristics in the novel.  Discuss the differences and similarities between the ways that they are each of these things.  Use specific examples from the text to support your opinions.

La Inca and Beli

Walking yourself through the questions to do a feminist critique, analyze how Beli responds to her troubles with the Gangster.  The narrator, who is or is not reliable, characterizes Beli as being somewhat blinded by love.  On page 142, he says, "like everyone in this damned story, she underestimated the depth of the s**** she was in."After reading this entire section thoroughly moving into how Beli ended up in the US, do a feminist critique of how Beli responded to this major tragedy in her life.

Internalized Misogyny

One critic wrote of the treatment of women  in Oscar Wao:
The internalized racism on display in the novel is scary (Oscar’s dark-skinned mother is self-conscious of her skin color, and as a girl will only date light-skinned boys), but not nearly as terrifying as the internalized misogyny that every single female character–even the indefatigable Lola–drinks down with her mother’s milk. Oscar, fat and unattractive, at least survives his childhood, but when a neighborhood girl is similarly afflicted, she goes crazy with self-hatred. Nearly every female character in the novel has a boyfriend who slaps her around, and to whom she goes back again and again. Not a single one of them seems to consider that she doesn’t need a man in her life.


Using a feminist critique, what is an analysis you bring to this idea of internalized misogyny presented in the novel that the above critic is trying to address?  Is this a stereotyped idea about women or is this a reality that the author is trying to bring to the surface?  Do you think the author is just trying to bring realism to his female characters, or is the view of women of color in Oscar Wao simply a patriarchal vision of who we are?  Use excerpts from the text to support your opinion from pgs 75 and beyond.

Maestra Coffey's Critical Literacy Blog: In Support of Women or Just More Patriarchy?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w87ERgj6RG8

Critical or Just More Patriarchy

Using the link provided to you below, watch the video Kardaryl recommended to the class by Timothy de la Getto.  As you watch, think about the following questions and answer them in your post:
1) How is he addressing the effects of patriarchy in his rap?
2) How does he also reinforce patriarchy?  What are the limits or short-comings of his argument?
3) Why does he put it all on young women and our individual choices to believe the media?  Do you agree with this, or disagree with it?  Who is more responsible for the damage that media does to young women's self-esteem, the media, or young women?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w87ERgj6RG8

Who has it harder in society?  Men or women?  Explain your thinking using specific examples.

Criminalization or Prevention

Some argue that truancy tickets, a practice used in Los Angeles, which requires that truant or tardy students  pay a fine, do community service, and/or have a court hearing is a useful practice that deters people from coming to school late or cutting school.  Others argue that this is another way that youth are criminalized because many students are fingerprinted when they get their truancy system, and it forces them into the court system.  If they don't pay the fines, they are denied other rights like ability to get a drivers license. 80% of LAUSD students are Title I, meaning their families are below the poverty line. That means truancy tickets are given overwhelmingly to low-income, majority Black and Brown youth whose families are now going to pay money they most certainly do not have at their disposal.  What do you think about truancy tickets?  Do they work?  What would be an alternative solution for getting students to school on time.  REMINDER: Your response should not be a sentence long!

Should We Celebrate?

Watch the top video posted on the video bar.  Then respond to the following:  What is the connection between this talk and Thanksgiving?  Based on what the speaker Aaron Huey explains, what are we celebrating on Thanksgiving day?  Should we celebrate?  We don't usually think of Native Americans as prisoners of war.   Why does Aaron Huey rename reservations as Prisoner of War Camps?  Based on what he said and what you see in his photographs, is that an accurate term to describe Native peoples and the reservations they live in?