Signing Off the Blog ...

Hello, Everyone:

Thanks for your contributions on the blog this semester. Reading back through it provides an interesting (and at times entertaining) road map of the course! I will see about converting the blog to an e-book -- or, at the very least, to a PDF -- in case anyone decides they want to see the conversations linked together.

Stay tuned,

-Prof. Graban

Parallel Catharsis

In Children of Invention, there is catharsis that takes place however on multiple levels. The catharsis takes place on a personal level of the viewer but also for the characters themselves. The two children  in the film are Raymond and Tina. Tina the younger daughter is very pure and sterile as the film begins as she has a very positive outlook on the world. As the film progresses she begins to face unfortunate realities and these help her to emotionally cleanse and as a result she matures. While Tina asks her mom to go to the mall in an earlier scene for "family day" the mother Elanie has no problem with this. Tina's brother Raymond is somewhat concerned because he is more responsible and knows the families poor economic status. Once Elanie is in jail and the children are forced to plan for surviving without her Tina quickly has to mature.
The catharsis is seen through Tina but also for the viewer and audience. The audience gets the setup of the story as them struggling to make it by as an immigrant family with a single parent. This makes the reader feel sympathy for the family but once they undergo actual problems outside the "norm" this is when things really turn. As Elanie is taken to jail and the children are left home alone the viewer sees the possibility that these children not only abandoned but how they will survive. They are very young even though the older brother Raymond has a very responsible and mature personality. As they head into Boston to go to the bank to withdraw money to begin a business the viewer embarks on their journey as well. Not sure what will happen, outside that the situation of these children traveling on their own is its own non conventional circumstance in itself. As Elanie is reunited with her children some of the tension is broken but the problem of this family and how its going to be supported still exists.

Immigrant Experience in The Jungle and Children of Invention

In both Upton Sinclair's The Jungle and Tze Chen's Children of Invention both stories depict the immigrant experience and how it isn't always as great as the "American dream" is portrayed to be.

In The Jungle Sinclair shows how the corruption in Packingstown leads to the workers being exploited and abused. Their unfair treatment leads to them attempting to unionize and gain rights for themselves and fight back against corrupt officials. In an earlier scene where Jurgis is buying a house he has another lawyer look over his housing contract. However this lawyer is actually corrupt and friends with the person giving Jurgis the lease and lies to Jurgis. Jurgis is an immigrant and naive and doesn't realize he's being scammed. He ends up figuring out that the contract isn't what it seems to be. As a result of being deceived he becomes less trusting progressively over the novel.

In Children of Invention, Elaine is also victim to corruption and faces many problems of the immigrant experience. She is recruited by this company and they end up scamming her on paying her checks of medicine she invested her money in. She then is convinced into making another similar mistake as she joins a company called Gold Rep. This company is a triangle ponzi scheme and as Elaine begins working there she fails to see this. She is only eager to make the money and move her children back into their foreclosed home. This all ends in the scheme collapsing and Elaine losing money she invested and also faces legal trouble through her implication with the company.

Children of Invention or Victims of Capitalism?

Money makes the world go round and this is echoed throughout the film in Children of Invention. We see the mother being constantly in debt and in search of quick ways to make more money in pursuit of a more comfortable life. She has neglected her children as a result of working too hard. There is a scene where she has to leave her kids in the toy shop for a very long period of time because she needs to call someone relevant to her work.

Growing up in an environment like this, the children (Raymond and Tina) learn the importance of money but they also learn about the mechanism of capitalism. They may have utilized their creativity to invent things but their ultimate goal is to sell them and make a profit in order to live a more comfortable life, just like their mother. In one way then, they have also fallen into the hands of capitalism and consumerism. They will grow up chasing after material wealth just like their mother and everybody else.

This is just an alternative view of the film and I am sure it is not the director's main intention for the film.

Levels of Understanding

In Children of Invention we have a situation which is understood through very different view points based on age. The adult in the situation is primarily concerned with her children and their well being. While her efforts to provide for her children are not always successful, her intent is admirable. Elaine's concern is complicated. She must navigate the adult world and all it's requirements. She must provide food, a place to live, and a future for her children. She must also be fully aware of the laws of the country in which she is living, and bear the burden of responsibility for the consequences of her actions. Raymond, on the other hand, has a more simplistic view of things. His concerns are almost always more immediate. He is responsible for himself, and often for his sister as well. He displays great maturity and initiative in providing for his family in the absence of his mother, but ultimately he is still a young boy. He becomes angry at his mother for her absence, and at some points even loses faith in his parents. Tina is the youngest, and has the simplest view of the matter. Her concerns are mostly for herself. She wishes to have her home back, to spend time with her parents, and of course to have the occasional slice of pizza.

Of course, part of this character selection is based in the director's personal experience, but there is also a great value to viewing this situation through such different lenses. By viewing  through an adult's lens, we appreciate the difficulty and complexity of the situation. We understand how hard it is for Elaine, and how big an impact her choices can have. By viewing through Raymond's eyes we have the best view of the immediate and daily impact this has on families. Raymond is the most concerned with the day to day impact on his family, and seems to be most affected by his mother's absence. Tina might offer the most important view, however. Even though she is a child, she is most concerned with the big picture. She may not have  the future in mind, but the honesty she has as a young girl has a great impact. While her elders are concerned with getting fed, providing a future, etc., Tina is concerned with more moral issues. It's unfair, she says, that she can't have a home, and that her mother can't be home regularly. She wants to eat every day, to have a house, and to be with her family. Ultimately this is the most important issue, the fairness of the situation on the most essential elements of a persons life such as food and family. It is Tina that brings this to our attention most directly.

Chinese-American Stereotypes in Children of Invention

In Children of Invention by Tze Chun there is specific emphasis put on Chinese-American immigrant stereotypes. In one of the earliest scenes they have the single mother Elaine in a beat-up old toyota with a chinese symbol hanging from the rearview mirror. Elaine then goes on to become victim of "get-rich" schemes that end up getting her into not only financial trouble but also legal trouble and puts her children at risk. The new housing Elaine moves her daughter Tina and son Raymond isn't officially zoned yet and they need to keep the blinds drawn and voices down.

In another scene where Elaine is dragging her children around to meetings because she can't afford daycare or babysitting the theme of Chinese-American stereotypes continues. The American business woman wants to hire Elaine to , "tap into the foreign market". This same woman annunciates and speaks ridiculously slow to the children and they laugh at her as they were American born and speak fluent english as their first language.

Invention in Wells-Barnett

         In "Lynch Law in America" Wells-Barnett uses logos as a tool to convince an audience she would normally not have interested as a way to get her argument across. In invention it's not just about what is said, but the way things are said. In "Lynch Law" Wells talks about horrible events, but instead of having an overwhelming appeal to pathos she uses an appeal to reason,logos, as a way to reach a larger populace of more influential people. Invention is very tied into appeals of reason. 
        Wells's use of logic when talking about statistics of people both foreign and domestic lynched. She does talk about children being killed because there father was, a boy being murdered because a white woman made certain accusations, how many foreigners America wasn't able to protect from this bigotry, and how some people were tortured before they were murdered without any appeal to their constitutional rights. However, she doesn't overly appeal to emotion, but simply states the facts. Wells use of invention also helps form audience construction. By appealing to logic and not having any overwhelming emotion she appeals to more influential and male people who are more likely to help.
        Overall, we see invention in the way she uses logos to form audience construction and even the way she uses ideas of American agency to bring her audience more together. Even though it is written in the manner of logos this American agency allowed all her readers to claim something that allowed them to all be on the same side no matter what race or class. Invention is all these things. Invention is the way someone forms an argument, the way they come up with their concepts, and even the way make their final judgement. 

The American Dream a lie?

The "American Dream" the reason why immigrants come to america to buy a home with a white picket fence and a red Ferrari. This dream is what every single person wants to accomplish they work day and night scrapping for every nickle and penny just to live a better life. In the movie Children of Invention and in the novel The Jungle, both families come to america in hoped of the "American Dream", but yet sadly both once happy families are marred with divorce, tragic hardship and the elusive escape of the "American Dream". Is the "American Dream" a lie? Raymond's mom is scammed into two different pyramid schemes that cost her family financial woes the first time and legal trouble the second time. Some people may say that pyramid schemes are just shortcuts and the "American Dream" is about working hard and making money, but in "The Jungle" working hard just is not enough to earn the "American Dream". So what does it take to live "The America Dream"? A whole lot if luck and hard work. I Can say this personally because I 'am a immigrant and when I first came to America life was hard people treated you differently, even to this day people tell me its because of people like me Americans are loosing jobs. Yet the guy at the top is still living "The America Dream" while the rest of us work hard just to make it by day to day.  

In Daniel Quinn’s Ishmael, there is a significant vocal presence.  There are three identities present within the character of Ishmael.  James Phelan, in his work Narrative as Rhetoric, he dissects the concept of voice.  The first point he makes is that “voice is as much a social phenomenon as it is an individual one” (Phelan, 44).  This leads to the conclusion that though Ishmael’s voice is only the voice of the character Ishmael, but it includes the author’s “individual” identity as well as the “social phenomenon” (which will be unpacked later). 

Firstly and most apparently, within the voice of Ishmael there is the voice of the actual character.  He has his own personality, emotional ups and downs, and physical struggles that are not necessarily in agreement with the other identities present.  The identities of the author and of what I’m going to call a “social consciousness” are also wrapped into the voice of Ishmael.  The author too has his own personality that is shown in small stylistic ways, such as story unfolding in a way that is pleasing to the author.  The overall identity also present in Ishmael’s voice is that of a social consciousness.  This is the message of the character Ishmael, the author, and the movement.  Readers will recognize the presence of a “social phenomenon” in the voice of Ishmael because it is recognizable through life experiences (Phelan, 45).  I call this social consciousness, because the majority of people in the audience of Ishmael will understand concepts of “saving the planet,” “going green,” and /or “sustainability.”  These concepts come together to become a “social phenomenon,” or to make it more of a person/ identity, “social consciousness.”

All these identities, the character Ishmael, Daniel Quinn, and a social consciousness, are united into one voice through style, through a single entity we call “Ishmael.”

Audience Construction in Children of Invention and Ishmael

In Daniel Quinn's Ishmael,it is very clear that Quinn is trying to convey his opinions and points of view through the Gorilla, Ishmael. However, it is less clear to whom he is trying to convey these to, in terms of audience. While it could be said that the book is meant for everyone, seeing as the critiques found throughout Ishmael are towards humans in general, I think there is a possibility that Ishmael was targeted towards a more specific audience. The way that Ishmael critiques the "Takers" for storing food, eliminating competitors, and preventing competitors from attaining food, all point to humans. But there are certain humans that "take" more than others, and I believe this is whose attention Quinn is mainly trying to attract. Manufacturers, businesses, and people that take resources for granted can all be considered as extreme "Takers." Quinn is trying to raise awareness of the immorality of their actions, as well as trying to capture their attention by directly critiquing them. After watching Children of Invention, it became clear that the film is meant to appeal to a broad audience, but is meant to be interpreted by each viewer somewhat differently. The emotional appeal of Children of Invention is meant to affect all viewers, but it is the viewers with family or similar hardships that the film is meant to deeply impact. For anyone that has children, the experiences of Tina and Raymond, as well as their relationship with Elaine would make a great impact on he or she. On a general level, Children of Invention is also meant for an audience of all Americans, so that it can raise awareness of the dangers and injustice involved in pyramid schemes.

Fighting the Odds

In class for the last 3 - 4 novels we read, we have seen the environment that the characters are in has an impact on the outcome of the story. In most books so far we have seen a tragic ending to the characters, but in Children of Invention we see the opposite. We see two children who are left by them selves not give-up and become pray to the society they live in, but they actually try to overcome it. A scene that really caught my eye was when Raymond tells Tina that their mom left them two and its just them now and they have to fend for them selves. Raymond starts to do math and he writes his ideas down to create inventions to sell. Raymond tells Tina that if they sell all there inventions they can make $10,000 and if they did it 10 times they can buy their home back.Tho Raymond has no idea of the cost of the home he does not let that deter him from his goal to buy back their old home. Raymond also makes the initiative to accomplish this goal by  traveling all the way to Boston to get his money from the bank just to start working on the inventions to sell. This made me wonder what would happen to most children left in Raymond & Tina's shoes? Would they become a victim to poverty and scams and theft? Or would most children do what Raymond did, care for his sister and become the provider for his family?

Exigence in Children of Invention

The film Children of Invention deals with the difficulties faced by immigrants who live in big American cities. People of various races pour into the United States in search of a good life and also because they believe that it is the land of opportunities.

The director's exigence for this movie is to show that not every immigrant can find the right opportunities and some may end up being victims to illegal businesses such as pyramid schemes. When people migrate to the U.S., they only think about the opportunities that are waiting for them but not the risks involved. The director intends to show these risks along with their implications to the audience.

In my opinion, the director has picked a very suitable issue to address because there aren't many of us who understand the lives of immigrants. The director has allowed us to get a sense of that by giving us a glimpse into the lives of the Cheng family both from the perspective of the mother and the children.

Complicating race cont. 2

The way to narrate in this book is clearly by thrid person.  Furthmore, it cannot be considered by Wilson herself such as Marji in Persepolis.  That is, although it is the fact that she reflects her own experience in the story, nobody in the book cannot be identified as Wilson even the narrator of third person and Frado.  Then we can use the interpretation of “Variations of Distance” by Booth.  In Types of Narration, Booth explains that “the narrator may be more or less distant from the implied author and most authors are distant from even the most knowing narrator in that they presumably know” (p. 156).  That is, the method of narration by the third person causes a distance from Wilson to Frado.  The narrator in this story is also written as if the third person knows every develpoment of the story.  However, although the development of the story is similar to Wilson’s experience, the entire story is differnet from the life of Wilson.  All of this can make an audience second guesss the role of race and how it is portryaed.  Sometimes the audience can think situations in the novel are actually what happened to Wilson, while other audiences can assume that the novel is just a narrative interpretation of Wilson’s life.  The role of the African-american and what is happenng to them can conflict what actual happenened in Wilson’s life.  “She had never known plenty” (Wilson 7).  When one is viewed as property and unable to make decisions for one’s self, one has only what is given to them.  Is this true for Wilson’s life?  Did she experience the same situation?  These questions are there to try and interpret the role of black people during the time.  The conflicting views or race is often the reason for the questions given by an audience.  Afterall, children wre sometimes given up in order for the parents to get by.  Furthermore, when one is used to “the great brotherhood of man” (Wilson 6) ignoring them, then one loses hope for a change.  These people are making no effort to escape.

Complicating race cont.

It is true that Wilson reflects her own experience and the circumstance at that time into the figure of Frado.  In the introduction of the book, we can see the fact that “Sleeping in alternately stifling and freezing quarters, being overlooked to the point of exhaustion, and enduring depressing isolation were the norms in service.  As a young black child indentured toa white family in a town that only a handful of blacks called home, Wilson experienced a fate even worse than the typical northern indenture” (p. xxvii).  African-americans were property.  Mrs. Bellmost indicates this when she talks about “keeping” a servent on page 16, and again when Jack refers to Mag as “our nig,” which is on the same page.  Since these people are viewed as property, they are treated like dogs.  Booth explains in his essay, “Perhaps the most important differences in narrative effect depend on whether the narrator is dramatized in his or her own right on whether his or her beliefs and characteristics are shared by the author” (p. 151).  If the author is sharing the same beliefs as the narrative characters, than there might be some complications in what is actual happening.  The idea of race and how it is portryed could been thrown off and/or complicated.  The reader might get two differnet angles of the idea of race and that complication can give different responses to the audience.  Wilson reflects her own experience exactly in this book’s world view and into the figure of Frado.  However, even after we read these statements, we can consider that Frado is seprate from Wilson in terms of the view of independence as a character, and a woman.  But other characters could be affected.  Just like a dog, Mag sleeps outdoors.  Mag is also punished with raw-hide and “allowed” to eat her breakfast away from where the family is eating.  This view and treatment leads to desitute and hopelessness.  Again, do these actions realte back to Wilson’s experience?  I feel as if some of the life-styles might not correlate to what Wilson expirenced, which in short, could lead to confusion from the audience.  The way race is portrayed might lead to complications in being able to determine what is actual happening during that time.  Is it just the way the book its written?  Maybe Wilson is trying to create a more attractive narrative, instead of revealing what actually is happening during that time.

Complicating race

In Our Nig, we can consider Frado a different character from the author Harriet Wilson in spite of the fact that it is mentioned, “In writing Frado’s heartbreaking story, Harriet Wilson recounts her own experiences while combining a subverting multiple literary styles,” in the back of the novel.  Why can we consider that Frado is an independent character who differs from the author?  I believe the reason is based on that Wilson uses the third person as a narrator, which inevidibly leads to the complication of race throughout the novel.  Thoughout most of Our Nig there are many clues the reader can use to assume what role race played in that time as well as the time of the author herself.  Because of the correlation between the story and the author, the idea of race and the role race played during that time can get complicated.