Tag Archives: gender

Week 10 – I, Rigoberta Menchú

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This was a difficult book to read. It wasn’t a piece of fiction that someone had conjured up, instead it was a recounting of an actual person’s story. Since Mama Blanca we hadn’t read a story that was based on a person’s life, so reading this was a bit hard to register because of the overall content. I know from the lecture it was mentioned that there might be parts in the book that were made up, but if we disregard that the content is still quite heavy. I think this might be the most “content” heavy book I will read in this class, and I don’t really know how I feel about it. I can’t really say I like or dislike this book, but what I will say is that it was the most emotionally taxing book so far.

There’s one line from the book that really got to me and has stayed in my head for a while. In chapter 13, the lines “I was very depressed about life because I thought, what would life be like when I grew up? I thought about my childhood and all the time that had passed.” (pg.176), is something I can’t forget. The quote itself seems so out of place, in the book. If you forget the context in which the quote was said, it seems like something that would be said in young adult book, movie or tv show. I feel like its a line everyone can relate to, I definitely started questioning my future before I turned 20 because I kept thinking about everything I hadn’t accomplished in the years before. The future felt so vague and scary, and I can’t imagine what it was like for Rigoberta. It was essentially a turning point in her life because, in my opinion, that’s when she started thinking who she is, in terms of her race and gender, and how she has the ability to make a difference. Or maybe I’m just reading too much into it…

Moreover, the books content having to do with discrimination and inequality was quite eye opening and moving. It’s not like race and discrimination isn’t talked about, but the way it was described here in such clear detail added another layer of realness, that you don’t get to read about often.

Question to think about: It was mentioned in the book that Rigoberta started becoming a leader within her community. However, it wasn’t until the deaths of her family members that really pushed her into being an activist. My question is, do you think that if members of her family hadn’t died she wouldn’t have become as big of an activist like this?

Week 4 – Twenty Love Poems

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After learning about Neruda and the choices he made, I wasn’t sure what to expect when reading this. However, I was surprised by the poems I read because some were sweet and softer, compared to what I was expecting. I quite enjoyed the different poems that were written because while the theme (women) was consistent throughout, no two poems were written the same way. It felt as though the first few poems were much more sexual and really touched on the desires Neruda felt towards women, and how he saw them through his eyes. However, as I continued reading the writing shifted to something a bit more heartfelt and sadder, and could be interpreted as feelings of love and loss with a person or even yourself . It was kind of like a “love-story” was being unraveled before my eyes, but with a sad ending. At the start you could sense Neruda’s attraction to women, from the way he described them, but as he continued to write it felt as though he had lost someone who he couldn’t forget and continued to long-for them. Moreover, in the end his final poem ‘The Song of Despair’ completely encapsulates the utter loss and sadness he feels for losing the women he loved . I found the order of the poems interesting. regardless of whether or not it was done on purpose.

I have read my fair share of poems from high school and something that I was always able to do was imagine what was being said, but for some reason I had a hard time putting the words into pictures this time. The poems were very descriptive and it seemed easy to paint a picture in your head but for some reason I couldn’t, and maybe that had to do with the simplicity of the lines. Neruda didn’t use fancy words or make odd comparisons that were hard to understand, he instead wrote in a way that was easy to follow and understand. Rather then painting pictures in my head, I felt myself feeling and hearing more. For example, the line “…leaves garnered your voice, that was slow and at peace.” (I Remember You As You Were), I could hear the slight rustling of leaves accompanied by a husky and soft voice. While I was still able to imagine some lines, my main focus was on the emotions I felt when reading the different poems.

As I mentioned before, Neruda used simple language in his poems and he did that by using nature to tell a story. It was interesting to see how he used the simple, natural world to describe the beauty of women and his feelings of loss. Maybe it was his ability to describe women using nature, that seemed to soften his objectification of women throughout the poems. It is possible that if he lessened the use of nature in his writing style, he would be seen as less poetic, and more aggressive.

Question to think about: Neruda relied heavily on nature in his poems, is there a reason he felt the need to do that? What was it in nature that made him describe and compare women to it?