Wishing Flower

They say they know you

She says just be friendly

He says learn from them

But I don’t

I say,

I don’t belong.

To curl up under the covers

underneath the meadow

just before the soil,

to hide form such leering eyes

and encroaching feet.

A blade of grass in a field

is all I hope

but instead

a dandelion

different and awkward

unsure which way to sway.

Until someone bold

plucks it from the ground.

The wishing flower

they call it.

If only it were the same to me.

The dandelion is different

until it is the same

alone until it is surrounded

unsure until it is strong.

But I stay unsure

in a field unsure

which way to sway

or turn

trapped behind bars

while the rest fly free.

To know, to learn, to laugh

a second nature during most

not here

now

with them.

For the rest a second skin.

That sheds at my presence.

The layers formed

by the existence of another

Those I so well know

but it’s not my presence they see

for it is another’s

with carefully built up fences

to keep the seeds of the wishing flower

from diffusing by the breeze.

The Dictator of the Future: Gender Inequality

Anisha Palasamudrum

Ms. Tompkins

World Lit Honors Period 1

3/12/15  

The Dictator of the Future: Gender Inequality

Imagine having your future set in stone. Imagine if you were not in a classroom long enough to be literate or if your only responsibility was to be an adequate spouse. You see the world growing alongside of you, but this growth is not something you are a part of. This lack of opportunity is something that a majority of the women in Africa face each day as a result of the increasing gender inequality. Six out of ten of the countries ranked as the worst places in the world for a women were nations in Africa (Sauter). In Syria, there was a 61% difference in the labor force participation between men and women. In Mauritania, a country in Africa, women are paid on average 28% of what men are paid. In Chad, 21% less women are literate than men (Sauter). These trends continue all across Africa aiding the gender disparity.

Gender inequality is partially caused by the prevalence of certain older traditions that are still apparent in these developing nations. A woman’s responsibilities used to be at home, while it was up to her husband to make her life successful. Due to an increasingly westernized society, there is more overall opportunity for everyone, but women, as one individual observed, were “deference to the opposite sex [that was] at all times a constant” and unable to experience these changes (Bwakali). The persistence of gender inequality closes opportunities for the whole nation of women, because when women do not have a chance, half of a nation’s population is left behind.

One significant impact of gender inequality is a decreasing literacy and education rate among girls and women. Africa lacks much of its needed schooling facilities, and as a result, a common scenario is a limited amount of space in a school, which then increases competition among the students. The issue with this is that boys are given the upper hand to attend school causing the girls to drop out as a result of this preferential treatment (C. R.). The number of girls in secondary school fell from 83 to 82 for every 100 male students. In tertiary levels of schooling, the number of girls for every 100 boys fell from 67 to 63. This impacts their whole society because in many countries like Mali, the literacy rate of women is 49% that of mens literacy (MacNevin). With decreasing levels of education, women also have decreasing opportunities to make a difference in their communities.

The participation of women in society is essential for economic growth, and without it, the economy is impaired. In Africa, only about 10% of the total wages generated come from women as women only hold 1% of the continent’s overall economy (Africa News Service). The Africa News Service also found that less inequality leads to higher economic growth, however Africa is not seeing economic growth because of the increasing gender disparity gap. Women have no power in the economy as, “Economic handicaps greatly restrict this decision-making leaving the economically empowered man as the decision maker” (Bwakali). The problem is a cycle of inability that these women are caught in.

The United Nations Fund for Population Activities, or UNFPA, is one of the many organizations trying to close the gender inequality gap by increasing educational and economic opportunities in Africa (UNFPA). Older traditions influence the societal role of an African women which leaves half the population in the dust. In effect, women do not receive a proper education or the ability to participate in the economy. In order to increase a woman’s opportunity in Africa, foundations like the UNFPA attempt to uproot the futures of the many women that were stuck in stone.

Works Cited

"Advancing Gender Equality." East and Southern Africa. UNFPA, n.d. Web. 08 Mar. 2015.

Bwakali, David John. "Gender Inequality in Africa." Contemporary Review 279.1630 (2001): 270.Opposing Viewpoints in Context. Web. 8 Mar. 2015.

"Gender Inequality Shackles Continent's Economies [column]." Africa News Service 15 Sept. 2008: n. pag.Global Issues In Context. Web. 7 Mar. 2015.

MacNevin, Suzanne. "The Ten Worst Countries for Women." The Feminist EZine. N.p., n.d. Web. 06 Mar. 2015.

R., C. "Making Room for Girls." The Economist. The Economist Newspaper, 05 Nov. 2013. Web. 08 Mar. 2015.

Sauter, Michael B., Alexander E.M. Hess, and Thomas C. Frohlich. "The Most Unfair Countries For Women." 24/7 Wall St. N.p., 30 Oct. 2013. Web. 08 Mar. 2015.

Stephen Analysis

Stephen Character Analysis

Analysis:

Paton uses Stephen to show how painful experiences lead to fear. Stephen is forced to go out of his comfort zone when he travels to Johannesburg to help his family, but he is afraid of the big city and its uncertainties. His role in the novel is to act as a bridge between reality and the world that is present. Racism and adversity hold him back, but through tentative steps, Stephen will be able to make a difference.

Quotes:  

“I do not hurt myself, it is they who are hurting me. My own son, my own sister, my own brother. They go away and they do not write any more. Perhaps it does not seem to them that we suffer. Perhaps they do not care for it” (9).

“Black and white, it says, black and white, though it is red and green. It is too much to understand. He is silent, his headaches, he is afraid. There is this railway station to come, this great place with all its tunnels under the ground” (17).

“And now the fear is back again, the fear of the unknown… Already the knees are weak of the man who a moment since had shown his little lie… The humble man reached for his pocket for his sacred book, and began to read. It was this world alone that was certain” (14).

Disconnect and Intellect

Disconnection due to the Cultural Revolution

Four Eyes’ glasses

• Four Eyes’ glasses portray the idea that he doesn’t fit in. He can’t re-educate as well as others, because without his fragile glasses he can’t see, and is set apart by his intelligence. His glasses are a symbol of comfort and courage as well, and shape how he sees the world. When he loses them, he has lost his ability to see and feels like he has lost his way of looking at the world. They also give him a feeling of superiority towards the villagers. Without his glasses, he’s no better than the rest of them; they symbolize his education and wealth. They set him apart from everyone else. Symbolizing that he is smart and from the city, they re-education started to break Four Eyes, just as the buffalo broke his glasses.

Quotes

• “That’s where my son is being reeducated. You may have met him. It seems he’s the only one up there who wears glasses” (84).
• “Without his spectacles his goggle eyes reminded me of the dull, dazed look of a Pekinese dog. He seemed quite lost and stricken, even before he had hoisted the hod of rice onto his back”(53).
• “He kept his bulging eye fixed on the ground before him but couldn’t see the raised stoned on which he might have put his feet. He advanced blindly, tottering and lurching like a drunkard . . . and he fell to his knees” (54).
• “He bent over and plunged his arms into the water, groping around in the mud. The blank expression in his bulging eyes was disconcerting”(47).
• “. . . Which sent his spectacles hurtling through the air . . . Clapping his hands over his eyes, he let out a stream of abuse, as if he had been blinded” (47).

Thesis

• Four Eyes’ glasses give him comfort and courage that depict his difference from the rest of the village, and his dependence on them shows his struggle to cling to the world outside of the mountain.

Books

Books let the narrator achieve things and give him courage to talk to Seamstress.

They allow him to realize that his ability to go and learn has been taken away from him by Mao and the Red Guards and makes him understand just how repressed his society is by the Cultural Revolution. Now that they books have shown him another way to live, he resents the people who keep him from doing so by banning literature.The books are helping him cling to the outside world and are one of the only things that reminds him of his life before it was destroyed by Mao. Literature is a large part of intellectual growth, and because the boys were not exposed to it, they feel like there was a gaping hole in their education. When introduced to books, they visibly grow as characters.

Quotes

• “‘This fellow Balzac is a wizard,’ he went on. ‘He touched the head of this mountain girl with an invisible finger, and she was transformed, carried away in a dream… She said having Balzac’s words next to her skin made her feel good, and also more intelligent.’” (62)
• “I took the novels out of the suitcase one by one, opened them, studied the portraits of the authors, and passed them on to Luo. Brushing them with the tips of my fingers made me feel as if my pale hands were in touch with human lives...‘So, are you weeping tears of joy?’ I said. ‘No. All I feel is loathing.’ ‘Me too. Loathing for everyone who kept these books from us.’

Thesis

• When the author Dai Sijie weaves the symbolism of books into the narrator’s journey, he portrays Balzac and the other forbidden forms literature to be life changing as they open a new opportunity for him to grow in an intellectual sense, that had been previously oppressed from the lack of opportunity.

Rising

Tilt one’s neck, blurring the clouds.

Creamy white flakes of pepper

that evaporated, Rising.

After the luminous flames are quenched.

And the embers scatter and all that remains is ash.

Rising. Past one world, into the next.

From the concrete ledge man has created for himself

to every intangible he hopes to gain.

Above his concerns

Feathered wings fluttered by,

Insignificant emerald leaves crinkle across the horizon.

The ominous plate laid out an offering

of all that exists.

Evoked, a sense of wonder.

A wonder for more than substance.

In the sky, nothing much exists

as nothing anchors it to the land that we live and breathe.

the fire we build to destroy.

Nothing forces it to connect with what we see.

Rising. The formation of land and sea

is different from above.

Detached from the physical being.

For one has rose.

Different Shoes and Different Views.

Picture of the Brain
Picture of the Mouth
Picture of the Heart
Picture of the Hand
Picture of the Shoes