Rabbi's Cat

Kitty from The Rabbi’s Cat is an entertaining character who has many layers to his character development.  In the first story Kitty gains the ability to talk after eating the family parrot. After the cat gains the ability to talk he begins to question the Rabbi about his beliefs and this leads to some confrontation between the two characters. Kitty, challenges the Rabbi in his faith while he still had his voice, but in the last moments that he had his voice he spent it trying to help the Rabbi pass an exam that would allow him to keep the position of Rabbi in his town. This moment expresses how kitty, though a challenging character for the Rabbi to agree with sometimes is actually a good friend of the Rabbi’s.

Kitty has very few interests as a character and it may be from his unique perspective as a cat that he is able to offer the audience a unique and objective outlook on much of the beliefs of the humans in the story. Kitty in some ways can be compared to a child that asks questions out of curiosity that may sometimes offer a fresh perspective to a belief. Like children, Kitty has trouble understanding certain ideas that the people take for granted.

Kitty offers me as a reader a fresh perspective and because he asks questions that most would not think of he offers us a new perspective to a sometimes old and rigid set of ideas. Kitty allows me as the reader to view an argument from an objective perspective and this allows me to understand why I believe what I believe. Due to this, Kitty is a central character to the story and to the understanding of the context of the story on greater depths than just simple time line progression.

Andrew Asimus

Nervous 1

    The world has always been unfair to women, this is true in all cultures. The sad part of the fact is that no matter where you are you will never escape it. This is one of the main ideas that stick out to me in the novel Nervous Conditions. The main character in the story is a young girl who is growing up in a struggling African family. Like most families, this family is struggling with money. The sad fact is that injustice comes to the main character, because she is a girl her family was going to choose to take her out of school in hopes that they could then support her brother in his education. Due to this, the little girl grows her own produce so that what she sells she can use to send herself to school. Sadly, her brother takes much of the crop and gives it away.
   I relate to this story because of my mother, she was a young woman when she had her children, she had to raise and feed her two young boys on the waitress' salary. This was especially difficult because she was only nineteen at the time, and where was the father? Gone, he was abusive so she left him. I must state then that I do believe that women do have harder times in society, in the sense that if people become truly desperate and have to pick and choose who to send to school or whatever it will likely be the boy.
   The story of my mom helps me to identify with the universal fact that many women have been put in situations that are unfair. Many women have to struggle to survive, support their families, or make a living. Simply, even with all the advancements of women in America women can still struggle like the women from Nervous conditions. The women in Nervous Conditions are tough, this seems to be the same with the women around the world like my mother. The women have had to learn to work hard, to work harder than anyone else just to feed the family, or pay for her education like Tambu from the story. Plainly, the story of my mom helps me to identify with the struggle that Tambu and the women in her life had to face.
Andrew Asimus

Decolonization of the Mind

   In the article Decolonization of the Mind the writer speaks of the injustice that is not only colonization of Africa, but also the natives own minds. The people of Africa are facing injustice, they are being forced to learn European languages, and having to learn how to express themselves in this foreign language. The idea of African people speaking in a foreign lanugauge can be expressed as betraying the "mother tongue" as the writer says.
   I find it to be a sad fact of life that the African people have to learn the languages of Europe and have to adopt their own language such as African English. Sadly, this is what has happened, and this will continue to happen throughout the world. Nations of greater influence force others to adapt to their desires. I am being wishful in thinking when I say that maybe the African people will not lose parts of their history during this, but most likely they will to a certain degree just as the American Indian population have lost some of their rich history.
   To an extent this bares a resemblance to the the American people of the times of great migrations. During these times the people would worry about being over run by immigrants and the language they spoke. The people of Africa appear to think in a similar manner that the outsiders will overrun them, and mask their heritage. Obviously, there is solid grounds for the people to worry, but how are the people who are immigrating to Africa actually acting towards the African natives? Are all of the immigrants disrespectful, or are some of them more respectful then the ones who are giving the other immigrants a bad reputation? Lastly, what can we really even do to help the African people?

Good Climate

        In the story written by Nadine Gordimer "Good Climate, Friendly Inhabitants" she exposes the idea that even the whites of Africa may have their minds being held captive by racism. The character/narrator is a woman who is a sense is a good, loving, gentle woman who cares about others, but is a racist and sees the other races as monkeys. The idea given by Gordimer is very true because I come from a family with a history of racism, and even though the individuals may have good hearts they are blinded by their prejudice. In another sense they are being held captive by racism. The shame is that the people who are racist, or are the victims of these prejudices are trapped; many may never find their way out. To truly confirm what I am trying to express I will say that all people whether white, black, or anything in between must be careful that their own minds are not held captive to ideas that may not be our own.
Andrew Asimus

Stranglehold of English Lit.

         "While history went on mocking the victims of branding irons and sugar-plantations that made Jane Austen's people wealthy beyond compare," the people that Felix Mnthali love are being suppressed because nobody will hear the outcry of someone of a different tongue. Felix genuinely believes that his people have a story to tell that is beyond what the history books are telling. Their cry is suppressed by the Stranglehold of English Literature that says how a person may speak, and what language is acceptable. This leads to a bottleneck of knowledge to where only the knowledge, morals, and laws of the oppressors is allowed to continue. Felix knows that the values of his people are in jeopardy of extinction because of this bottleneck. The true shame is that the people he is defending have a little voice that only those interested will hear, and though Felix may be shouting his voice may not be enough.
     If it is my opinion that you are seeking on the matter I will post that history will prove that very often the voices of the conquered are never heard because it is those who win the battle that write the history books. So, is it a shame? My reply would be yes, I love the culture and life that Africans lead, and I believe they have more to offer us then we may have to offer them. Do I agree with the writer? Yes I do. Felix calls it as he sees it when he says that English Lit. was at the very heart of the conquest because we control the knowledge and controlling the education of those who are so lucky as to receive the educations that we have to offer the knowledge we give them is biased towards our own morals,and laws.
    In the end of this little journal, all I can say is I am sorry that we are a part of this system that strangles independence of morals, beliefs, and laws.